He admitted smacking but the District Court
meant that the blows were not hard enough
Press release Aftonbladet. Translation: Ruby
Harrold-Claesson, lawyer
|
Linda Skugge wrote
"We
are bringing up a generation of monsters" and
Roger Lord wrote "The
children are embarrassing Sweden". Maybe even the courts are
beginning to realise that it is better to smack defiant children when words
and admonitions are insufficient to make them change their ways than have
some desperate parents shoot them off in an attempt to protect their
families, like the case in Rodeby
on October 6, inst. |
A father in southern Skåne has been
acquitted, in spite of him admitting to smacking his 5 year old daughter.
The District Court's views are that the blows should not be judged as abuse.
The reactions to the verdict came immediately.
A faulty verdict. I expect that it is going to
be changed in the appeal, says Göran Harnesk, general secretary for Children's
rights in the Society (Bris), to the Telegram Bureau.
According to the District Court, the 54 yr old
father from Skåne, has smacked his daughter's bottom on several occasions. But
the corrections have not been sufficiently long lasting and intense for him to
be punished. The pain has not been sufficiently serious, according to the
Court. Göran Harnesk thinks it is the wrong way to reason.
Zero tolerance is what it is about. A child can feel bad even if it doesn't
feel physical pain. It is the belittling that is decisive, he says.
Convincing impression
The judge and one
of the lay-judges gave dissenting opinions and wanted to sentence the father to
fines for assault to a lesser degree. However, the Court was unanimous in
acquitting the girl's 42-year old mother, who admitted that she had
"flicked" her on the head on one occasion when she was stubborn.
That, according to the verdict, does not meet the level of punishable abuse.
It was the girl who spontaneously started
telling a nurse about her punishments when she attended her five year health
examination. I a video filmed questioning the girl said "Daddy has smacked
me on my bottom so it hurt when he had come home from work and was very angry.
...Also Mamma hit me on my head once so it hurt."
According to the District Court the girl gave a
mature and convincing impression. Her parents have explained their actions by
the girl's stubbornness.
The Children's ombudsman (CO) Lena Nyberg is
not allowed to comment on particular cases, but she points out that Sweden has
a very clear legislation concerning child abuse.
- Adults are not allowed to use physical
punishment or violence towards children.
The CO deems that there is the need for a new information campaign about
adult's violence towards children like the one that was staged when the
anti-smacking law was passed in 1979.
- Now there is a new generation of parents who
perhaps need to be informed that it is forbidden and what they should do
instead of using violence when the feel that they are not on top of the
situation, Nyberg says.
The Telegram Bureau was unsuccessful in
reaching the prosecutor, but the lawyer Hans Hulthén, who represented the girl,
has told the Skåne Daily that he is considering an appeal to the Court of
Appeal.
Facts: Previous acquittal was overturned
In 2004 a man was acquitted by the Varberg District Court, in spite of the fact
that he had smacked and pushed his 15-year old stepdaughter. The verdict was
changed in the Court of Appeal and the man was sentenced to fines for petty
abuse.
Smacking is prohibited in Sweden since 1979.
From 1980 to 2000 it seems that the number of children who were smacked declined.
Since then the numbers have been on the increase. According to an investigation
made by the University of Karlstad and the Children's home Charity, 1,1 percent
of the parents who were interviewed in 2000 admitted that they had smacked
their child. In 2006 the number was 2.3 percent.
During the first half of this year there were
714 police notifications about abuse of small children, according to the National
Council for Crime Prevention. The reports have been increasing for several
years.
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