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At 9.30 am on Wednesday, the trial against Peter Lundgren, 57, accused of sexual harassment or, alternatively, stalking, a crime that he denies. The indictment concerns Expressen’s disclosure a week before the EU elections in May 2019, when we were able to post recorded telephone conversations between then-EU MP Kristina Winberg and a fellow party member. In the conversations, the party partner testified about how Peter Lundgren took her on his breasts in a hotel room during the SD election conference in Nacka in March 2018:
In conversations, the woman told Winberg, who was also in the hotel room, how she reacted to the unwanted approach:
– Yes, he squeezed me a lot with his legs. I panicked like this … I panicked.
She also said:
– It was lucky that there were people in the room. What if I had been with him myself?
When Expressen confronted Lundgren during an election campaign meeting in Täby, he admitted that he took the woman by the breasts:
– I probably took her on the breasts when we sat there, we were pretty drunk that night and she pushed her hands away.
The revelation dominated the end of the EU election campaign last year. Peter Lundgren canceled several major debates and appearances. The party also decided to fire Kristina Winberg from the party’s ballot. The Sweden Democrats also chose to post a YouTube clip with Lundgren and the woman saying the incident is “scandalous.” At the same time, she says it was a “difficult situation” and Lundgren describes her as being “really stupid” and having “real anxiety.”
Lundgren’s defense: the woman “flirted”
In November of last year, Chief Prosecutor Maria Sterup filed charges against Lundgren. During police questioning, Lundgren denies wrongdoing, but admits that he grabbed her by the chest. During interrogations, Lundgren says several times that the woman “challenged” him and that he “blinked one eye.”
He flirts a bit and sticks out, but then he leans forward, sticks his upper body out, and then literally challenges me. Then I took her by the breasts, she says in questioning and adds that she was on vacation with the woman after the incident in the hotel room in Nacka.
Lundgren also nods at Kristina Winberg, who on questioning says she recorded the conversations if the woman ever wanted to report Lundgren. According to Lundgren, Winberg has engaged in “political foul play” and tried to “assassinate” him:
– This is something that Kristina has tried to do a political execution, you could say, says in questioning.
The party’s partner, whom Lundgren took in the breasts, does not want to participate in the police investigation. Over and over, he says “no comment” in questioning. When she hears what Peter Lundgren said about her, she says that she doesn’t think he said it. She is then told that it has been read aloud, but she chooses not to respond.
“Nothing to help the prosecutor”
When Expressen contacts Peter Lundgren before the trial, he refers to his lawyer Tor Åström and hangs up.
The woman does not seem to want to participate, how important is it in this case?
– It is absolutely fundamental to the way I see the goal. In almost all sexual cases, it begins with the plaintiff’s story and then the story is addressed. The plaintiff says something has happened and the defendant says nothing has happened. So it’s 1-1 in the starting position. So more is needed to get a conviction, supporting evidence, says lawyer Tor Åström, adding:
– Here we start with the 1-0 on the back for the prosecutor because it seems that the plaintiff does not want to say anything, at least nothing that helps the prosecutor.
Is it problematic that the plaintiff woman does not want to participate in the case?
– I don’t want to get ahead of the main audience. This is subject to public prosecution. So I have no comment on that, says Chief Prosecutor Maria Sterup, who is taking the case against Lundgren.
Expressen has searched for Kristina Winberg and the woman Lundgren groped.
READ MORE: Peter Lundgren, SD politician, is accused of sexual harassment
