Swedish woman falsely accused of necrophilia wins damages

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Sweden has been ordered to pay 70,000 kronor (7,455 euros, $8,193) in damages to a woman who was falsely accused of hoarding skeletal parts for sex, in an affair she said ruined her life, local media reported Wednesday.

The case dates to September 2012 when police found a nearly complete human skeleton, six skulls and other bones in a raid on the home of a 39-year-old woman in Sweden’s second-largest city of Gothenburg.

The find caused a sensation among local media who dubbed her “skeleton woman” and splashed images of the grisly find across their inside pages.

Investigators suspected her of engaging in sexual activities with the skeletal parts, something she vehemently denied, insisting she simply cultivated a “keen interest in osteology (the study of bones)” and bought the bones on the internet.

A court in Gothenburg convicted her of “disturbing the peace of the dead” and ordered her to undergo psychiatric treatment but she was acquitted on appeal, with the higher court finding there was no proof she had ever raided a tomb.

The woman then demanded compensation from the state. That case was settled by the chancellor of justice, a civil servant representing the government in legal disputes, who fixed the figure at 70,000 kronor.

On Wednesday, the woman, whose identity was withheld throughout the proceedings, told the Goteborgs-Posten daily that the case had caused irreparable damage to her reputation.

“Now we know what price we place on a life in Sweden,” she said. “I expected to receive 70,000 (kronor) but I asked for 15 million because that’s the value I place on my life.”

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