Promoting or mediating prostitution is pimping and illegal in Sweden. But after a business scheme, which neither experienced police officers nor legal experts have heard of before, a 50-year-old man was acquitted of pimping last summer.
– I wanted it to be legal, I spoke to a lawyer before, says the man, who explains that the idea to record porn videos came from a feeling of sexual dissatisfaction.
After the woman reported the 50-year-old to the police, he was convicted in the district court of three counts of negligent rape and pimping, but in the appeals court he was completely acquitted.
When asked if he tried to circumvent the pimping legislation, the man replies: No. And his image is that the woman was involved in everything.
Established agreements
But the woman, who was mentally ill, had a PTSD diagnosis and substance abuse problems, states in police interrogations that she was under the influence of drugs when she signed the five-page consent agreement, a promissory note and other agreements on joint film production in corporate form.
The fact that she did it at all was to help a friend who the 50-year-old man claimed owed him 320,000 kroner. According to him, the debt arose after the friend agreed to record “sex and intercourse films”, signed an agreement and then withdrew from their so-called collaboration.
The men who paid for porn videos and cam shows transferred money to the 50-year-old’s company, where he added the woman as a deputy. The man claims they owned the same amount because she signed a co-ownership agreement. The arrangement was decisive for the acquittal, where the Court of Appeal states that the woman “signed both the promissory note and the partnership agreement of her own free will”.
However, an examination of the ownership relationship shows that the man owns all the shares and is the real principal. In questioning, the woman also says that she only received payment in the form of swish for food, alcohol and drugs.
A 63-year-old man who swished after a filmed threesome admitted buying sex and was sentenced to a day’s fine in Södertälje district court. He did not appeal to a higher court.
Split opinions
Chamber prosecutor Cecilia Tepper is critical of the Court of Appeal verdict. She believes that the woman was not in a position to sign any contracts, that she was in a particularly vulnerable situation and was dependent on the 50-year-old.
– This woman, I mean, has not had a free choice to say no to these various sexual acts.
The Svea Court of Appeal does not want to participate in an interview, but replies by email that there were no conditions to convict the defendant of pimping (see fact box).
SVT Nyheter has been in contact with the woman, who does not want to appear for an interview and is still unwell.
In the video, the freed man says that it was important for him to do the right thing for himself.
