Joakim Magnus Lamotte is a Swedish journalist and columnist, who in recent years has primarily worked for the Göteborgsposten. He is also active online, publishing on his own blog until June 2015, moving to Facebook afterwards, where he keeps an active page (the original untranslated video can be seen here).
We link to his story, about a 12-year-old girl who was dragged into a restroom in the centre of Stenungsund, Sweden. The girl was threatened, beaten and raped. She and her mother reported the rape to the police, telling them exactly who the man was. Two months later, the police had still not interviewed the suspect, even though they were told his name and even where he lives.
Lamotte was contacted by the mother, who told him how she and her daughter are regularly confronted with this man on the streets of Stenungsund, and that he mocks them every time. The girl is devastated. Lamotte decided to call the police. He made a video of the call, asking if the police had already interviewed the suspect.
The call unfolds as follows:
Törnquist: “(…) Törnquist, police.”
Lamotte: “Hello, Joakim Lamotte here, I am a journalist.”
T: “Yes, hello.”
L: “I was given your name by the Stenugsund Police because I am investigating a case. The rape of a child, which took place in Stenungsund a case that has been brought to your attention. It was a twelve year old girl, raped by an older man in mid July in Stenungsund…”
T: “Yes.”
L: “Well, I just wanted to check to see if you had located a suspect, or interrogated anyone”
T: “No, no.”
L: “You haven’t?”
T: “No we haven’t interrogated any suspects yet, but… At least we have a name and the investigation will tell us whether or not it’s the right person, but…”
L:“See, what I’m getting at is – it’s been over a month since the rape…”
T:“Do you know how many rapes we have?”
L:“No, I don’t. But I’ve talked to the mother and her daughter feels very bad because of this, and I know who this man is, I have his name, address, social security number and everything, and, I mean, you haven’t even interrogated him yet, isn’t that remarkable?”
T:“Well, you might think so, but we have so many similar issues and so few people available we cannot cope with the workload.”
L:“Really?”
T: “Yeah, so… we have such a large amount of work that we cannot do any better than this, it is very regrettable because there was nothing we would have rather done than talk to him the following day, but it was just impossible.”
L:“That sounds unbelievable. A 12-year-old girl who is raped, it’s just a child, it’s…”
T:“We have 3-year-old children that get raped.”
(dead silence)
L:“Without you being able to prosecute those who do it?”
T:“Yes. (…) These are the realities and it’s terribly regrettable. That’s all I can say about it.”
L:“But it’s all-right if I mention your thoughts later, when I write about this? That you think you are short-staffed and such?”
T:“Yes, yes, I think so.”
Commenting on this call, Lamotte writes:
“The answer that I got to my question shocked me. It was a cry for help by police investigators, who told me that they don’t even have the time to research the rape of 3-year-old children. Watch and listen and share this as much as you can. Make sure every politician in Sweden sees this clip. People have to see with their own eyes, the way the rule of law in our country is dying!“