by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
STRASBOURG, France – The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Sweden must pay compensation to a woman for failing to protect her right to privacy after her stepfather was acquitted of sexual molestation charges.
Eliza Soederman’s stepfather attempted to film her naked in the bathroom when she was 14 years old. Soederman found the hidden camera in the bathroom in 2002. Her mother burned the film and reported the incident to police two years later, according to a court statement.
Soederman had found a video camera that her stepfather had hidden in the laundry basket in the bathroom. The European Court of Human Rights published a summary of the case on its website:
“The camera was directed at the spot where the applicant had undressed before taking a shower. [She] explained that on the relevant day, just before she was about to take a shower, her stepfather had something to do in the bathroom. When she discovered the camera, it was in recording mode, making a buzzing sound and flashing.”
The Court stated that Swedish law failed to protect her privacy because covert filming was not a punishable offense at the time. A Swedish law covering privacy rights came into effect in July earlier this year.
The stepfather was charged and convicted of sexual molestation over the incident. However he was later acquitted of the charges because Swedish molestation law did not extend to cases of covert filming.
The Court of Human rights ordered Sweden to pay Soederman 39,700 euros in damages, including compensation for legal costs.
The European Court judges stated that the man could not possibly have been convicted of attempted child pornography. The gap in Sweden’s sexual molestation law resulted from the lack of a definition for “pornographic picture” in the Swedish penal code.
Soederman, now 25, took her case to the European Court of Human Rights after the Swedish court of appeal acquitted the stepfather in 2007. He contended that he never intended his stepdaughter to know about the covert filming.
For more information, please see:
ABC News – Court: Sweden Failed Girl Filmed by Stepfather – 12 November 2013
BBC News – European Court Fines Sweden Over Girl Video Case – 12 November 2013
Fox News – Rights Court: Sweden Failed to Protect Girl Filmed Nude by Stepfather – 12 November 2013
The Local – European Court to Rule on Swedish Shower Case – 12 November 2013
The Washington Post – Rights Court: Sweden Failed to Protect Girl Filmed Nude by Stepfather – 12 November 2013
