A 16-year-old Swedish girl has been accused of luring a taxi driver into a secluded forest and killing him by hanging in revenge after he allegedly raped her as a 14-year-old.
The plans
She and her four brothers, aged between 16 to 18, are on trial in Sweden’s Uppsala District Court accused of murdering the 26-year-old taxi driver.
The four brothers deny all charges against them, but the girl admitted that she lured him to the secluded area, thinking he would be beaten up.
The girl allegedly texted the taxi driver, who has not yet been named, asking him to meet her with a bottle of vodka in a car park near the Hjälstavikens nature reserve in southeast Sweden in March.
The murder
After the pair met, the four brothers allegedly strangled the man and hanged him with a noose made up of rope that they brought with them, Swedish newspaper Fria Tider reported.
Prosecutors said that this likely would’ve led to him severely suffering in his final moments alive.
Several search parties were sent out to find the taxi driver who was only found several weeks after his car was spotted hidden in a nearby snowdrift.
Evidence
Local police said they found the defendants’ DNA both in the murdered man’s car and on the rope used to hang him.
On top of this, records revealed they had transferred money from his bank accounts to their own.
Cops also allegedly found some of his belongings in their home, the Swedish publication reported.
Prosecutors said that the main motive for the alleged murder was revenge, as the girl had made a report about the driver allegedly raping her in February 2022 that was not followed up on.
The brothers reportedly told several of their friends that they would be killing a rapist, and told them that they had done so after the deed was done.
Andreas Pallinder, head of investigations at the Uppsala police at a press conference, admitted that his force should’ve taken her rape report seriously.
‘If you take it to its extreme, theoretically we could have prevented a murder,’ he said.
Prosecutors also believed that there may have been a financial motive for the killing, as his money and belongings were missing.
This line of inquiry was later dropped as it was judged to be vague.
Ebru Tok, a lawyer representing the murdered man’s family, previously said: ‘The family is in great sadness and shocked by the unique situation of such young people being suspected of the murder.
‘They hope that the preliminary investigation will clarify the circumstances of the case.’
