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STOCKHOLM: A mother in Sweden was arrested on suspicion of locking her son inside her apartment for 28 years, leaving him malnourished and almost toothless, police and media said on Tuesday (December 1).
“The mother is suspected of illegal deprivation of liberty and causing bodily harm,” Ola Osterling, spokesman for the Stockholm police, told AFP.
He said the man had been “locked up for a long time” in the apartment in a southern suburb of Stockholm, but declined to comment on reports in the Expressen and Aftonbladet newspapers that he had been detained for 28 years.
Reports say the mother took her son out of school when he was 12 and kept him locked inside the apartment ever since.
An unidentified relative found the man, now 41, on Sunday after the mother, in her 70s, was taken to hospital, Expressen reported.
The man had infected sores on his legs, could barely walk, had almost no teeth and had a limited ability to speak, according to reports.
Osterling declined to comment on those details, saying only: “The man is in the hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening.”
The mother has denied the crimes, the Swedish prosecutor’s office said.
Police technicians enter the apartment in a Stockholm suburb where the mother is suspected of having kept her son for 28 years. (Photo: AFP / Jonathan NACKSTRAND)
“URINE, DIRT AND DUST”
Doctors at the hospital had alerted the police to the case.
Police tape was spread across the apartment door Tuesday, and crime scene technicians were seen leaving the scene around noon, an AFP photographer said.
The apartment is located in a nondescript gray and yellow low-rise building in the working-class suburb of Handen in Haninge Township.
The unidentified relative who found the man said the apartment appeared to have not been cleaned in years.
“There was urine, dirt and dust. It smelled rotten,” he told Expressen, adding that he had to fight his way through piles of garbage to get through the hallways.
“No one could have cleaned that house for many years.”
“I am in shock, heartbroken, but at the same time relieved. I have been waiting 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 said. said.
“He knew he was there and that he must be scared because his mother was his only sense of security and now she was gone,” he added.
There was no immediate explanation for the mother’s alleged actions.
“She stole his life and manipulated the people around her to keep her secret,” said the relative.
“I am grateful that he has received help and that he will survive.”
An unidentified neighbor, who lived in the same building, told Aftonbladet that he ran into the man at a nearby grocery store a few months ago.
“I know who you are, you’re my neighbor,” the man had told her, recognizing her after having seen her through the window, he said.
The apartment is in a nondescript building in the working-class suburb of Handen. (Photo: AFP / Claudio BRESCIANI)
“HOW COULD ANYONE HAVE NOTICED?”
But most people in the neighborhood told local media that they hadn’t seen the man in years.
“They hardly ever came out, they didn’t even open the windows to let in fresh air. It’s hidden,” another woman in the building told Aftonbladet.
Many neighbors wondered why neither the social services, the school nor any other authority took care of the child over the years.
“And when we did renovations to the building, how could anyone have noticed? Workers have been here,” one woman told Aftonbladet.
Another woman said that she occasionally met the mother.
“We talked about little things, like you. Sometimes I asked her about the boy and she told me that he was fine, that she never talked about him,” he said.
However, he added that he found it strange that his window was never open and that the same chandelier had been in the window for 30 years.
“But what can you do? How do you know what’s going on behind closed doors? It’s all so horrible you can’t believe it’s true,” he said.
