Nathalie was raped, forced to work the next day

On January 22 of last year, Nathalie visited a tattoo artist in South Stockholm, who had a home business. She had met him once before and now she was going to get one of his thighs tattooed.

But during the tattooing process, the man began to perform sexual acts and take pictures.

Nathalie was lying on a bunk in a locked apartment. He texted a friend:

“He spread my legs now.”

“It feels so small.”

He called another friend and cried. The abuse lasted for hours, until the tattoo was finished.

The tattoo artist was later sentenced, in both the district court and the court of appeal, to two years and three months in prison for rape and offensive photography.

The boss’s response to Nathalie after the rape

Now Nathalie decides to tell Handelsnytt what happened. And how later she did not find any understanding from the Hemköp workplace, but was pressured to go there.

Already a few hours after the rape, Nathalie wrote to her immediate superior, a mid-level manager, telling him what had happened. The next day he had an early work shift at the grocery store where he worked.

The boss’s response: “You understand that it is difficult, but it does not improve being at home …”

Y:

“I think they will need you …”

The middle manager then passed on to store management what had happened, without Nathalie’s approval, he tells Handelsnytt.

He went to work like in a haze the next day. He doesn’t remember everything, but he remembers that none of the managers asked him how he felt.

Finally, he called his mother.

– Physically she was there, but mentally she was in a completely different place. In the state it was … I can’t believe they forced her to go there, the mother tells Handelsnytt.

Pressed for work

In the months that followed, when Nathalie was simultaneously preparing for and going through a trial, the job questioned her repeatedly, she says. She was on sick leave, had trouble sleeping, and thought that everyone wanted her very much, but she felt Hemköp’s tone harden.

He received text messages that “your colleagues are hurting,” that you “need to take responsibility” and that “it would be fun if you could worry” about work, Handelsnytt writes.

– During the psychologist talks, I almost always sat down and talked about work. They told me to quit. But change jobs then, in the seat I was in? It hardly existed, Nathalie tells the newspaper.

An employee Handelsnytt spoke to says the Hemköp store was overcrowded and Nathalie was blamed. According to the employee, Nathalie was treated “in a disgusting manner.”

“I thought it was all my fault”

Once she returned to work after sick leave, no one had listened to her wishes not to work alone and avoid morning shifts due to sleep problems.

One day they also forced her to take a drug test.

Today, Nathalie has a new job at another chain. When you recall old text messages from your employer and your own responses, you see a completely different moment. “The girl she was then.”

– I often thought I was responsible. That it was all my fault. Now I know this is not the case, says Nathalie to Handelsnytt, continuing:

– Still, I’m sitting here today and I’m not done with everything that happened. For a fucking job.

Hemköp Answers

Elin Jarl, Hemköp press officer, writes in an email:

“We take this issue and employee experiences very seriously. We are unable to comment on questions about individual employees externally, but we are now reviewing the previous investigation we did into this incident and how management acted at the store. “

According to Elin Jarl, Hemköp will also review their guidelines on how they will handle “these kinds of events” in the future. They will also contact Nathalie to “offer her support.”

“The need for support from our employees when something happens in private, and how we, as employers, can support it, is a priority and also something that is continually discussed at the management level. Everyone should feel seen and receive adequate support in our stores “Elin Jarl writes.

Expressen has contacted Nathalie, who approves of us posting her photo and quote.