Five children are killed by a parent in Sweden every year. Every time such a murder receives attention, promises are made of change and better protection. But nothing happens. This weekend the statistics may rise again: six-year-old Albin is in life-threatening danger following the failure of the courts.
Albin is six years old. Today, Swedish police are to collect him from his home, from his mother Ida and his soon-to-be 15-year-old brother Mille. From everything that is his sense of safety.
The police are then to hand Albin over to his father. A father who has assaulted and threatened to kill the mother in front of the children, who has assaulted the children, who stamped Albin’s rabbit to death in front of the boy. A father who has used such extreme violence that the mother and children have been granted protected housing and confidential identities. A father who has promised to kidnap the children to Turkey to have them circumcised. A father whom Albin says will kill him.
A father who during the trial stated that he intended to “wipe the children’s minds clean” of everything Swedish, and who, according to several witnesses, has promised to take the lives of both himself and Albin.
At the same time, the mother is assessed, in the medical records from the protected accommodation, as having more than adequate parenting capacity. She is described as responsible, structured and caring, and the relationship between mother and son is described as warm, safe and close.
The District Court in Värmland took all of this into account – and issued the following ruling: the father is to be granted sole custody of Albin.
According to the Swedish court, this is “in Albin’s best interest.”
Excuse my language: but how on earth is this possible?
Unfortunately, I know how it is possible. In Sweden, the mantra of “children’s right to their parents” has come to mean that one is willing to sacrifice children’s safety, health and lives for a parent’s right to contact. In Sweden, parents who protect their children are accused of “parental alienation” – something considered worse than children’s accounts of violence.
In Sweden, newly graduated social workers and ideologically conditioned lay judges sit like absolute emperors in gladiator arenas: thumbs up or thumbs down.
An abused woman trying to protect her child is interpreted as unstable, overprotective, manipulative. She is seen as influencing the child to reject the nice father, who is so calm and pleasant and expresses himself so convincingly. During the custody trial concerning Albin’s future, the judge refused to allow the mother to attend via video link. Instead, she was forced – for three days – to sit face to face with the man who had subjected her and the children to violence and abuse.
The consequence? The mother had to be admitted to hospital.
The court’s interpretation? The mother is unstable. Mentally ill. The accounts of violence are probably fabricated, and therefore she is unfit as a custodian. If, on the other hand, the violence did occur, then she lacks “the ability to present a positive image of the father” to the child – and is therefore also unfit as a custodian.
Catch-22. Kafka meets Orwell meets Norén.
As recently as this week, the Court of Appeal decided to uphold the district court’s ruling.
That means only one thing: as an abused mother, you are powerless. You cannot protect your child – and is there anything more diabolical to subject a parent to?
We move even further into the innermost circles of hell when we realize that Albin is far from alone: three-year-old Esmeralda, known as “Lilla Hjärtat” (Little Darling), was found in January 2020 wrapped in a carpet, neglected to death, after being moved from her safe foster home back to her substance-abusing biological parents.
Three years later, in January 2023, eight-year-old Constantin “Tintin” was murdered during a two-hour visit with his father. Tintin had repeatedly told social services about his fear of his father – he was convinced his father would kill him. Despite risk assessments showing danger of abduction, violence and Tintin’s need for treatment after abuse, the courts concluded that the father’s right to contact outweighed Tintin’s need for safety and protection.
At that time, Social Affairs Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall said that legal changes were needed so that children’s wishes would carry more weight than parents’.
– The child’s rights must come before the parents’. For example, a child who is afraid of their own parent should not be forced to have contact with that parent, the minister said.
So what has happened? Nothing at all – and that is usually how it goes. When a tragedy occurs, politicians, officials and commentators compete to be interviewed in the TV studios, furrow their brows and solemnly promise that change is coming. Then a few days pass, and everything continues as before. Until the next child dies.
Albin, Lilla Hjärtat and Tintin have received media attention thanks to adults who fight for them, who refuse to let us forget.
But in Sweden, on average, five children are killed every year by a parent. Most of these children we will never know the names of. But they existed. They were loved. They were valuable. They were afraid – and they had often told adults about their fear. Adults in schools, social services and the police. Adults who failed them. They had a life they were never allowed to live, and in far too many cases responsibility for their deaths lies with Swedish authorities. Authorities whose officials avoid consequences and hide behind clichés about “not commenting on individual cases.”
When it comes to Albin, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Social Affairs and the Prime Minister have been informed by child and women’s rights groups that have fought to protect him. They have been met with total silence. No one wants to touch the dirty laundry.
The conclusion can only be one: Sweden sacrifices children. Children who die. Children forced to endure violence sanctioned by the authorities. Children who suffer lifelong trauma.
But Sweden also sacrifices the parents who are not allowed to protect their children. Parents who flee destructive relationships, seek protection, raise alarms, fight and speak out. Parents who comfort, reassure, embrace and love. Parents who do everything right – but who instead see the authorities send a police patrol to carry away a crying and screaming child to an abuser. Parents who must watch their child break down and disappear, or be forced to attend their own child’s funeral.
By the time you read this text, Albin may already have been taken. What happens next remains to be seen.