"Negligent Rape" After Tinder Date – Court of Appeal Upholds 54-Month Prison Sentence

During the court of appeal hearing, the prosecutor made an unexpected change to the indictment, adding negligent rape as an alternative charge. For the family, this sparked hope that the evidence might not be as strong as the district court’s conviction had suggested. But now that the judgment from the Court of Appeal has arrived, the message is a hard blow: the sentence of four years and six months in prison for two cases of rape stands. At the same time, mother Jeanette Westerlund Lindsjö describes a son who still seems to be in a kind of survival mode—and a family now preparing for the young man Samnytt has called “Joakim” to spend several years behind bars.

Samnytt has previously reported on “Joakim,” the young man sentenced to 54 months in prison after a relationship with a woman he met via the dating app Tinder.

In September last year, Joakim himself recounted how a relationship that ended in a breakup later turned into a police investigation, prosecution, and conviction. Now the Svea Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Court of Appeal essentially upholds the Norrtälje District Court’s judgment. The sentence remains four years and six months in prison for two counts of rape. Thus, the Court of Appeal sides with the district court regarding guilt, classification, and sentencing. However, the compensation awarded is reduced.

From the Court of Appeal’s verdict in the case against Joakim, accused of rape

For Jeanette Westerlund Lindsjö, who has fought publicly for her son throughout the process, the news was a severe blow.

What was your first reaction when you got the news that the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict?

– Everything just stopped. It was so incomprehensible. I became completely numb and empty inside, she tells Samnytt.

The Prosecutor Changed the Indictment in the Court of Appeal

One circumstance that caught the family’s attention was a change that occurred during the appeal trial.

After the first day of hearings, the prosecutor revised the description of the acts. The original indictment was supplemented with wording that the acts should be assessed as “rape or alternatively negligent rape.”

Jeanette says that she and her brother, who has worked for many years in the police, considered the change significant.

Did you expect a different outcome?

– Yes, already after the first day in the Court of Appeal the prosecutor changed the indictment to rape or alternatively negligent rape. That gave us the feeling that she was not at all as certain of a conviction as before. She continues:

– My brother said the same thing. We got the impression that the prosecutor was no longer as sure, and that’s why she resorted to the so-called negligent rape charge.

Despite this, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and convicted “Joakim” of two cases of rape. The court’s judgment does not clarify why the prosecutor chose to add negligent rape as an alternative charge.

The Tinder Relationship That Ended in Prison

When Samnytt interviewed “Joakim” last year, he described how he met the woman via the dating site Tinder and how their relationship developed during the spring of 2023. He has always denied the crime and claimed the intercourse was consensual.

In the interview, he stated that at first, he thought the police contact was a misunderstanding. He also described his surprise that the court chose to convict despite the fact that, according to him, the plaintiff had given contradictory statements.

– I think it’s totally crazy, he told Samnytt.

The case originates from a relationship between Joakim and a woman he met on Tinder in spring 2023. The woman later reported being raped on two occasions, on May 1 and May 5 of the same year, at Joakim’s home in Norrtälje.

The report was not filed until several months later. A point the defense has raised is that contact between the two continued after the first incident.

The woman returned to Joakim’s home a few days later, spent the night there, and, according to the family, also met Joakim’s mom. The following morning, they all had breakfast together before she traveled home. The communication continued afterwards, and according to earlier information, the woman wrote in a text to Joakim that he no longer seemed interested in her.

SMS screenshots from the woman to her alleged rapist, directly after the alleged incidents. Facsimile

Joakim has always denied the crime and claimed that all sexual contact was consensual. The defense has pointed out that the woman during the investigation stated she mixed up dates, suffered psychological distress, and used nitrous oxide during the period.

The family has also highlighted that a witness called by the woman had previously appeared in at least one other case where the same woman, according to information, had made similar accusations against other men.

Nevertheless, the courts found the woman’s story credible enough for a conviction, and both the district court and the court of appeal found the prosecution proved.

I don’t think he has really processed it himself. He says “it is what it is”, but inside it must be chaos. I think he is terribly afraid. And so are we for his sake, because he does not have the mental strength to endure such a long time inside. He is not that mentally strong.

Jeanette Westerlund Lindsjö

Could there have been a financial incentive for the witness to participate, for example, getting 100,000 SEK from the damages—from the plaintiff?

– Yes, absolutely, and that’s what we suspect has happened. As far as we know, she has also testified in the other trials. And it constantly emerges that she is unwell. She continues:

– It is also the case that the plaintiff has used drugs. And it is unclear if she knows what she thinks she saw or experienced.

“He Doesn’t Seem to Understand It’s Happening”

For Jeanette, the new judgment is not just about legal matters. She is mainly worried about how her son will react when it becomes clear that the Court of Appeal’s ruling means he will likely spend four and a half years in prison.

How has Joakim reacted to the decision of the Court of Appeal?

– I don’t think he has really processed it himself. He says, “it is what it is”, but inside it must be chaos. I think he is terribly afraid. Jeanette continues:

– And so are we for his sake, because he doesn’t have the mental strength to cope with being locked up this long. He is not that mentally strong.

Stock photo of Swedish court and Jeanette Westerlund Lindsjö, mother of the convicted “Joakim”. Photo: Private

Joakim is now 23 and, if the verdict stands, will be close to 30 when he leaves prison. When the news came, he was with his partner.

How did Joakim’s partner take the news?

– She has taken this very hard. He was already convicted in the district court when they got together, but they have known each other for many years.

The family has already started talking about the practical aspects of the prison sentence. Powers of attorney, banking matters, passwords and daily finances must be sorted if he is to serve his sentence.

– He doesn’t know what awaits, since he has not been remanded in custody so far. And he has no previous criminal record.

Minimal Hope for the Supreme Court

Despite the court’s decision, the family has not given up. Joakim’s lawyer will now try to get the Supreme Court to grant leave to appeal.

– He will do everything in his power to get the Supreme Court to look at this, says Jeanette.

You go into survival mode. We are probably the kind of people who tend to bottle up and hold back, but at some point the cup overflows. Now I’m just doing enough to get by and cope with this.

Jeanette Westerlund Lindsjö

She simultaneously describes a growing sense of powerlessness.

– You feel so powerless. That you can’t do anything.

If the verdict stands, the young man whom Samnytt calls “Joakim” will serve 54 months and then leave prison with a rape conviction behind him.

– Stigmatized for life. Rapist. How can a mother understand that? says Jeanette, adding:

– You go into survival mode. We tend to bottle up and hold things in, but at some point, the cup overflows. Now I’m only doing enough to stand up and make it through this.

The family describes the chance of getting to the Supreme Court as slim.

Thérèse Juel, whom Samnytt has previously interviewed, has earlier expressed great skepticism about the chances of having a case reopened by the Supreme Court in Sweden, even when new circumstances or new evidence is presented.

Alexander Bard and Thérèse Juel, active in the Mannaminne organization

Juel is an author, social commentator, and one of the most prominent representatives of the Mannaminne network.

For several years, she has been involved in questions of legal certainty, sexual crime legislation, and cases for reopening, arguing that Swedish courts sometimes convict with too little evidence and that opportunities to have wrongful convictions reviewed are inadequate.

She says that the Supreme Court rejects application after application for retrial without any real new review of the cases, and has therefore proposed a special retrial commission, modeled after the Bergwall Commission set up after the Quick scandal.

Juel refers, among other things, to the Chancellor of Justice’s report Wrongly Convicted from 2006, in which several acquitted people, according to the report, should have been granted a retrial the first time they applied.

According to Juel, wrongful convictions risk becoming permanent when the legal system lacks sufficient mechanisms to correct its own mistakes.

When we attended the Mannaminne demonstration last time, Alexander Bard said that what is happening now to young Swedish men is a legal scandal that Sweden in 10–20 years will look back on as one of the greatest judicial failures in Swedish history. How would you comment on that?

– That’s how it will be. We will have to be ashamed before our neighboring countries and the world for our laws, Joakim’s mother Jeanette concludes.