A 61-year-old man from Sweden is on trial accused of forcing his wife to have sex with more than 120 men. Prosecutors say he exploited the couple’s remote farm near Kramfors in northern Sweden, using surveillance cameras and drugs to compel her to have sexual acts with men he recruited online. He denies the charges, insisting the encounters were consensual and that he merely facilitated them.
The case has drawn international attention, with some comparisons made to the trial of Dominique Pelicot in France, who drugged his wife and allowed other men to rape her over nine years. The trial began on Friday in Härnösand, a small coastal town on Sweden’s east coast. The defendant reportedly sat motionless as the charges were read. The court then went into a closed session to protect the victim’s identity; she remains unnamed and has divorced him, with neither party publicly identified beyond his age.
According to the charges, from 2022 onward he coerced her into paid sex with men who traveled nationwide to their home, a scheme that continued until her police report in October 2025. Earlier this year he faced charges including multiple counts of rape, attempted rape and assault. Prosecutors say he drugged her to erode her boundaries, leveraging the remote location and her limited social ties to maintain control. Before the trial, lead prosecutor Ida Annerstedt told Expressen that the ex-husband exploited her vulnerable situation and fear of him to normalize the coercion.
He is also accused of using home surveillance cameras to monitor her, with footage sometimes recorded during the acts and to be presented as evidence. He allegedly threatened to kill his wife, douse her with petrol, set her on fire, and sever her fingers, according to the indictment cited by SVT. While authorities have identified 120 men, only 28 have been charged so far. Most suspects deny the allegations, claiming they did not have sex with the woman or did not pay for it. Prosecutors plan to present online chats, payments and calendar entries as evidence. Defense lawyer Martina Michaelsdotter Olsson said at the trial’s start that her client did not recognize the portrayal given by the prosecutor. The trial is scheduled to last 14 days.
