A nanny, a clergyman, mobile-phone messages from God and murder are the keys to a complicated crime which has captivated Sweden since the start of the year.
A trial in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, has revealed a bizarre story of sex and death in the secluded Knutby congregation, which belongs to Sweden's Pentecostal movement.
The case dominates media headlines and Swedes, living in one of the world's most secular and liberal countries, have been shocked to find out what went on in the sect-like community.
"The story has all the classic elements of a drama: murder, sex, religion, infidelity and jealousy," said Niklas Silow, news editor at Sweden's biggest tabloid, Aftonbladet.
His paper runs as many as a dozen pages a day on the case under headlines like "The House of Death" and "Each Sexual Intercourse was a Tribute to God." Aftonbladet's Web site broadcasts radio reports from the trial.
"Normally, this would only happen in the movies, but here it has taken place in a small rural community," Silow said.
The trial began at the end of last month, packed with surprises that would defy even the most imaginative crime writer.
Sara Svensson, a 27-year-old nanny working for one of the congregation's pastors, has confessed shooting dead his wife in January and trying to kill the man next door.
She said the pastor, with whom she was having an affair, told her killing them was the only way she could please God.
Prosecutors say 32-year-old pastor Helge Fossmo wanted to get rid of his wife to start a new life with another woman: the wife of the neighbor shot by Svensson. Fossmo denies charges of murder and attempted murder.
The sentence for murder in Sweden ranges from 10 years to life.
Wassmo is also suspected of killing his first wife, who "fell over in the bath" in 1999, hitting her head on the tap.
Her death was treated as an accident at the time but her corpse has been exhumed and the case reopened.
Knutby is situated in bucolic farmland, but those who have left the sect say life in the congregation was far from idyllic.
Led by a woman known as "Christ's Bride" after she "got engaged" to Jesus in a ceremony, the pastors had a say in nearly every aspect of members' lives, including whom they should marry.
The movement is an off-shoot of the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church to which 7 million of Sweden's 9 million citizens belong, but rarely visit.
The Knutby congregation put great emphasis on prophecies and witnesses said Wassmo talked about dreams telling him that his wives would be "called home to God."
Kent Cramnell, a Pentecostal pastor and advisor to other congregations, said the movement had been aware of problems and a "lack of democracy" in the Knutby congregation.
"But we could not have foreseen that this terrible tragedy would happen," he said, stressing it was an isolated case.
In a country known for cutting-edge mobile-phone technology, SMS messages have emerged as vital evidence.
Svensson said she received a number of anonymous messages, which she believed to be from God, urging her to commit murder.
A technology company has traced erased messages on her phone to Wassmo, who admitted sending them but said they were intended only to guide the nanny in her faith.
Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden's top broadsheet newspapers, said the Knutby case demonstrated how the latest technology could be used to foster religious fanaticism.
"God appearing by mobile phone is of course no stranger than him appearing in a burning bush," it said in an editorial.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
RSS