The trial began on Monday against a district court judge who is being prosecuted for a long list of crimes. These include aggravated violation of women’s integrity, harassment, and, as their children witnessed the abuse, multiple counts of child integrity violations.
In the summer of 2025, the 46-year-old man was appointed as a technical adviser at a district court in the Stockholm area, a position for permanent judges with technical or scientific backgrounds who work in courts functioning as land and environmental courts. They rule on cases concerning the environment, land, and construction together with legally trained judges and lay assessors.
In May this year, the man, who according to his wife is a sober alcoholic, was charged with aggravated violation of women’s integrity, harassment, and several counts of child integrity violations. The 46-year-old is suspected of having, over a longer period, subjected his wife to violence, humiliation, and threats.
According to the charges, the assaults on the wife included “pushing the victim to the ground and then grabbing her throat in a chokehold, causing pain.” He is also alleged to have spat on her, pulled her hair, and made threats of violence, saying things like “one more word and you’ll get beaten” or similar statements.
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Since the repeated assaults on the wife were witnessed by their shared children, the man is also charged with several counts of child integrity violations. He denies the charges.
One of the charges relates to harassment against another woman—the wife’s mother. He is accused of pushing her so hard that she fell over a table.
– It was a hard enough push that I lost my balance and fell over the table, the mother said in her police interview.
Met via Facebook
In addition to oral testimonies, evidence also includes screenshots of text messages between the woman and a witness, as well as messages between the victim and her mother.
In her interview, the woman says she met the man via Facebook in 2022, and they moved in together the following year. In 2024, he began to show a different side, and then everything escalated.
– I think it was summer 2024, first or second week of July. I don’t really know what is considered violent. Now I can look back and analyze things differently. He started saying I wasn’t fun. Didn’t say “I love you” back after I said it. Started controlling how I talked. Said it would be a mistake if he had a child with me. The outbursts of anger happened before July 2024. I guess I had more outbursts too.
Then it turned physical.
– It usually started with a shove. Sometimes he said I was in the way. Often in combination with me wanting contact, as I was often ignored. He would turn up the volume on the TV if I said something. Once, I fell to the floor and he kicked me. Couldn’t say it was especially hard. The chokehold left me sore for a few days. First time I was sore afterwards. I thought I could handle some things physically. If everything else was good, I thought it didn’t matter.
– Of course I’ve thought about how this could affect my son. In the car, sometime in July 2024, he was driving on the highway. Got angry at me and drove off at Kungens kurva and slammed on the brakes. I was very scared. It was a very scary drive and my son was in the car. He drove very fast and stopped abruptly.
– He’s also pulled my hair. We were on our way to his sister and her husband. I think his mother was there as well. I went in crying but didn’t say why, but I was very scared after he pulled my hair.
The man describes the relationship differently.
– And about our relationship, what I want to say which maybe explains some of this… we’ve mostly had it good, but we can also have very turbulent arguments. And what I think makes them turbulent, or makes things get out of hand sometimes, is that when I get stressed or feel pressured or threatened or whatever… I end up in a pressured situation and my instinct is to get away from it. I want to get away from what feels tough and dangerous, while [my wife’s] instinct is kind of the opposite.
– Many of our arguments are just… we just, we disagree on something and then it blows over. Other arguments might go so far that we’re yelling at each other and say awful things. And in some cases, speaking for myself, I’ve occasionally tried to avoid the conflict, meaning I might go to another room, another floor, and so on.