19 Feb 2015

Swedish mother ‘kept three children locked up for years’

Police in Sweden arrest a 59-year-old woman on suspicion of keeping her three daughters, now adults, locked up in an apartment for up to 10 years.

Swedish police officers leaving the apartment block (Reuters)

Police officers leaving the apartment block

According to the Swedish Expressen newspaper, one of the adult children managed to leave the apartment in Bromolla and convince a neighbour to call the police.

Police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford said officers suspected that the woman had “restricted her children’s freedom… for quite a few years”.

The daughters are now 32, 24 and 23, according to media reports.

An eyewitness told the Aftonbladet newspaper that one of the young women “could barely walk by herself” as she was led out of the apartment.

I’m in complete disbelief. Hanna Persson, local resident

The family had rented the apartment for just over two years, according to a spokesman for the local housing association, and had always paid the rent on time.

Bromolla is a small town with just 8,000 residents.

Resident Hanna Persson told The Local “I’m in complete disbelief, I never noticed anything wierd at all. I always assumed that there was just an elderly woman living there.”