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A man in his 40s was released after apparently his mother locked him up for 28 years.
They found him in horrible condition, he had few teeth and hardly any language skills or ability to walk.
The 41-year-old man was severely malnourished with painful sores and open wounds on his legs.
Swedish media were told that the man had trouble walking and speaking when doctors found him in an apartment in Stockholm.
A 70-year-old woman was arrested in Sweden’s capital on suspicion of holding her son captive in her home for up to three decades, police and a prosecutor said today.
A suspected relative entered the apartment on Sunday and found the man injured, Stockholm prosecutor Emma Olsson told Reuters.
She said he may have been detained for almost 30 years.
Several Swedish media, citing a relative who found him, said the man was discovered lying on a blanket on the floor, toothless, unable to speak and covered in sores and wounds.
They took him to the hospital and required surgery.
“Now he’s in the hospital … I know he needed surgery,” said Olsson, who did not elaborate on his condition.
The Expressen newspaper and others said they took the son out of school when he was about 12 years old.
It was found along with two almanacs from 1995 and 1996 on the wall of the cluttered apartment, the relative said.
The hospital contacted the police, who arrested the mother. They have cordoned off the apartment in southern Stockholm, while investigators collect evidence at the scene.
The mother denies the false imprisonment and serious bodily injury charges, Olsson said in a statement.
None have been named.
There was no immediate explanation why the son had been detained. Reuters was unable to reach family members for comment.
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet cites sources claiming that the mother was “very overprotective” of her son.
This came after a “family incident” that occurred in the past, the newspaper reports.
Alerted to the case by hospital staff treating the man, police cordoned off the apartment in the Haninge district of southern Stockholm for investigations.
“We are investigating how long the son may have been incarcerated, but we assume it has been a long period,” a police spokesman told Reuters.
Aftonblat reports that the man was found lying on a blanket, which may have been his bed, while the apartment was so messy that there were only small passageways to move through.
While Expressen reports that the relative who found the man said the scene she came across was like a horror movie, with urine, dirt and dust and a “rotten” smell.
She told the newspaper that for several years she had suspected the man was being held on the floor and decided to explore the floor when she heard that the 70-year-old was in hospital.
She said: “That house cannot have been cleaned for many years. There was total silence, apart from a large old television that had been left on.”
It was then that he heard a noise coming from a dark corner of the kitchen.
“I first noticed his legs. They looked horrible. All down to his knees were just open sores and wounds. One part of the calf was black and there were puddles of pus underneath it.”
He struggled to speak.
“I hadn’t seen him in over 20 years, but when our gazes met, he whispered my name over and over again.”
Neighbors reported that the woman stopped to speak but changed the subject when asked about her son, only replying that he was “fine.”
An Advent candle left in the apartment’s window for 30 years highlighted the dilapidated state of the property.
The relative who found him told Expressen: “I am in shock, heartbroken, but at the same time relieved.
“I have waited for this day for 20 years because I realized that she was totally in control of her life, but I never imagined the scope.”
She added: “The mother was able to manipulate society all these years. It is horrible that he was deprived of his entire life.”
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