A man in his sixties appears before a Swedish court this Friday, accused of procuring aggravated and rape for allegedly exploiting his wife in a vulnerable situation by forcing her to maintain sexual relations payment with about 120 men.
The defendant, a 62-year-old alleged former member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, denies the allegations. He was arrested in October after his wife reported him to the police.
The defendant came to court dressed in a gray checkered shirt and sporting a tattoo near his eye. He seemed calm as the prosecutor, Ida Annerstedt, read the indictment.
The victim He did not attend the courtroom, but follows the debates by video, remotely. However, only her lawyer appears on the screen, to keep the complainant anonymous.
As soon as the indictment was read, the trial continued behind closed doors.
It is suspected that the accused made money for years thanks to the pressure he put on his wife “to perform sexual acts“, according to the indictment.
“He is accused of aggravated pimping. He organized the operation so that his partner, who later became his wife, became a prostitute,” Annerstedt told AFP during a break.
“Ruthless exploitation”
He is accused of having published online advertisements, organized meetings and of having monitored and coerced his partner to have sexual relations that he then disclosed on the Internet to attract more clients.
The prosecutor described these events as “merciless exploitation.”
Under Swedish prostitution law, selling sexual services It is not illegal, but it is illegal to pay for them or facilitate their offer.
According to the indictment, the woman was in a “vulnerable situation.”
“He took advantage of her situation, to the extent that she was under the influence of drugs, alcohol and because she was very afraid of him,” the prosecutor told AFP, noting that the accused is also being prosecuted for suspicions of threats and assaults.
According to the accusation, he would have earned more than 500,000 crowns (46,000 euros, $54,000) by sexually exploiting his wife.
The man was also accused of aggravated pimping and eight rapes, one of them between his wife and a client.
The other seven correspond to several episodes in which the woman was forced to perform sexual acts on herself in videos published on the Internet, which according to Swedish law are equivalent to acts of rape.
Additionally, the defendant faces charges for four rape attempts and four attacks.
“Certain limits”
Annerstedt told AFP that the woman had “to some extent agreed to prostitute herself.”
But, in any case, he opposed his sexual services being sold to certain people or under certain circumstances.
“She had set certain limits. When he did not respect them, when he stepped on her after she said ‘no’, these are situations that make him accused of attempted rape or rape,” the prosecutor explained.
The official added that around 120 people are suspected of having purchased sexual services, of which 26 were charged, according to Swedish media.
The process that began this Friday will begin by addressing the charges against the husband. Other defendants will appear at later dates.
The events would have occurred between August 11, 2022 and October 21, 2025.
Martina Michaelsdotter, the defendant’s lawyer, told AFP that her client rejects these accusations.
“He admits to having participated, to a certain extent, in what is actually the complainant’s activity,” declared the lawyer, who specified that her client insists that he “had not facilitated that” and that there was no pressure or violence.
“He provided help with technical and administrative issues,” Michaelsdotter said.
The case generated great commotion in Sweden and there were those who compared it to that of Dominique Pelicot, sentenced in December 2024 in France to 20 years in prison for having drugged his wife, Gisèle, to rape her and letting dozens of strangers do the same between 2011 and 2020.
