According to the district court, there were no “humiliating or degrading elements” when Shakir Mahmoud Shakir, 38, raped a 100-year-old woman in her own home.
– I’m sorry, but it’s completely senseless, says Monica Ekström, confederation chairman of the Crime Victims’ Emergency Service.
After the verdict, she suggests that a new criminal classification be investigated: “elder rape”.
The article in brief
Domestic worker Shakir Mahmoud Shakir, 38, was convicted of raping a 100-year-old woman.
The district court considered that the rape should not be considered serious as they considered that it lacked “humiliating or degrading elements.”
– Senseless, says Monica Ekström, union chairman for Boj.
Proposal: investigate new criminal classification – “elder rape”.
The verdict against the domestic worker Shakir Mahmoud Shakir, who in October raped a 100-year-old woman in her home – after being called there to help her – has attracted enormous attention.
Shakir was sentenced to four years in prison.
Many are reacting to the fact that the Södertörn district court chose not to deport Shakir to his native Iraq – because it considers his connection to Sweden too strong.
“Of course she was defenseless”
Another circumstance in the verdict is that the court considered that it was a rape of the normal degree – not aggravated, as the prosecutor had requested.
– So the fact that she was 100 years old is irrelevant? That’s how I interpret it. It is clear that she was defenseless and in a dependent position to this home care worker, says Monica Ekström, confederation chairwoman for Crime Victims’ Shelter (Boj).
The Södertörn district court justifies the decision by saying that it was a limited sequence of events, that violence and threats of violence have not occurred apart from the violation that the rape itself entailed.
Prosecutors: Aggravated rape
Prosecutors Linn Nyberg and Caroline Stenbäck considered that the rape should be assessed as serious as the perpetrator “showed particular recklessness” by having:
• used his position at the home service to get into the woman’s home.
• exploited the woman’s “vulnerable position and inability to take care of herself” and her “opportunities to calm down”.
The woman has told in questioning that Shakir assaulted her for about ten minutes while she shouted at him to stop.
The District Court writes that “the act also did not have any humiliating or degrading elements”.
– Sorry, but it’s completely senseless. All rapes are both degrading and humiliating. Perhaps above all when it comes to a woman who is 100 years old, who is completely defenseless. She lacks the physical ability to defend herself, says Ekström.
Close to 400 rapes against older women
398 rapes against women over 60 have been reported in Sweden from 2021 until now. Expressen has mapped the men who rape in elderly care, and criminologist Anders Östlund estimates that the number of elderly rapes can be “gigantic”.
When an older person performs a sexual act that can be equated with intercourse against a child under 15, the perpetrator is automatically suspected of child rape – regardless of whether violence has occurred.
Ekström thinks that a similar sexual crime legislation that should protect the elderly, for example through the classification “elder rape”, needs to be investigated.
– I think so. Just like children, they are often exposed by people they are dependent on. For children, it can be family, relatives, babysitters or the like. And in the case of the elderly, it is about home care, staff at residences or in care. So I think you should look at whether this shouldn’t count as an aggravating circumstance.
