A group of men have been jailed by a court in southern Sweden for their role in the pimping of a 14-year-old mentally handicapped girl.
A total of 10 men were originally connected to the case where a 14-year-old girl, who has been diagnosed with learning difficulties, was drugged with narcotics and alcohol in March and sexually abused. The trial was delayed, however, after threats were made to the original judge.
An 18-year-old male, considered to be the ringleader of group, was this week found guilty of aggravated pimping but sentenced to only one year behind bars. Another man, 35 years old, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for the same offence as well as child rape.
The two men were charged with taking payment from two others who had sex with the girl. The girl was shipped to various locations during her ordeal, prompting prosecutors to attempt to bring charges of human trafficking in a pimping trial for the first time in Sweden. None of the attempts to gain such convictions were successful, however.
Jan-Anders Hybelius, who defended the 18-year-old who was jailed for a year, said “I’m not totally happy, but on the other hand, not totally unhappy either. I’m going to speak with him [the 18-year-old] and then we’ll make a decision about an appeal.” He added that he was pleased that his client was cleared of both child rape and human trafficking charges.
A third, 51-year-old man will spend two years in prison after being found guilty of child rape. In addition, a 27-year-old man was sentenced to a single year in prison for aggravated fraud, and a 17-year-old was fined for purchasing sexual services.
Posecutor Ulrika Rogland, who called for much longer sentences for all the men involved, said she plans to try and obtain the human trafficking convictions at a higher court. She added that she found it confusing that while some of the men who had sex with the girl were convicted of child rape, others were not. “I don’t understand the logic,” she said in a report by YLE.