Rebecka: He was an adult at that time. He should also have thought that "what am I doing, this is a 14 year old child".
Thomas Billberg: He was a handball referee and I thought it was good for them in team sports that they learn rules and so on. If I think so, that's how he came in, as a handball referee and handball coach.
Rebecka: It was like this that I saw that he had visited my profile a couple of times and then I was curious, who is that person? Why does he visit me so often?
Thomas Billberg: Perceived as a happy, nice guy. Talking, easy to hang out with, it seemed like.
Rebecka: I didn't think about the consequences this could lead to, what it might end up with.
This story is about a handball coach at the beginning of his career, a fragile and unhappy 14-year-old girl - and an online meeting place.
But it is also a story about the issue that all of Sports Sweden is wrestling with - how do you guarantee that the person who takes care of other people's children is suitable for the task?
Reporter: It was a training camp where your club went away, it was both then boys and girls teams.
Thomas Billberg: Yes, the whole club usually go away and gather everyone.
Reporter: And you were in this camp too?
Thomas Billberg: I was at that camp.
Reporter: And this man was with you?
Thomas Billberg: Yes.
Thomas Billberg was for many years boy and girl coach in handball for the Stockholm team IK Bolton. And in 2009, he is at a training camp.
Thomas Billberg: Yes, but you do everything possible, you have games together you play and train and socialize and so on. Maybe play some matches against each other etc. Everything is based on building the community with the club, with leaders, with players, etc. So that's why an entire club goes together like that.
When the young girls and boys gather in Västerås, there is a new ability in the coaching staff, which is best known for being a judge. A man in his 20s who previously played handball himself, but who now also wants to shoulder responsibility as a coach.
Thomas Billberg: They would relieve us because we had ... We had two teams and we were a few leaders so they would relieve us and then we wanted to have a little young because we were a little ... Yes, you want have some younger leaders too so they would take care of this team and we had the other team. But still, they are a team really, really.
Reporter: How did he do his job?
Thomas Billberg: Yeah, that ... because I don't remember that much, but I think he handled it pretty well.
Reporter: But you say you have not received any complaints that something would have happened?
Thomas Billberg: Nothing, nothing.
Reporter: For this camp that was, two to three weeks afterwards, this man was reported to the police for sexual assault.
Thomas Billberg: Mm ... You told me that.
Far away from the handball and training camp in another part of the country, Rebecka is sitting in her girl's room.
Rebecka: I felt bad during that time, I had been aware of some family quarrels and events before. So my life was a bit swaying already and it felt like everything came at one and the same time during that time so I was feeling mentally ill and had mental illness during that period. And that is why I also often sought new contacts to get support from them and not to feel alone.
Rebecka has noticed that a man has often visited her profile on the then popular site Bilddagboken. She gets curious and adds him as a friend.
Rebecka: It started very quiet there and we started commenting on each other's pictures. Very innocent and easy. One led to the other and then once again I had posted a picture asking "if I should be sorry, if anyone could think of comforting me then?". And then many people had commented "yes, I do" and then he had also commented. And then I thought I could send my number to him if it was so that I would have to call sometime in the middle of the night and wanted support. Then he said "of course you can do that".
Rebecka: He knew that I was a minor because it also says in my profile on Bilddagboken that I was born 95 and that I was 14 years old.
Reporter: So it was like no snack, he knew all along that you were ...
Rebecka: He knew all along that I was 14 and I said that too. When we talked about my days, I could say that I was at school, I have been with my friends and I have had these lessons today.
Rebecka: He gave me compliments, it first started with me being nice and I was beautiful and it could come later that I was sexy and for me, who was 14 years old, just starting to discover me sexuality then it was something really fun to have hear. You got really happy and ... but then he wanted pictures of me, he wanted pictures in lingerie and he also sent pictures of his, his genitals in erection.
Rebecka: I was only 14, I sat in my girl's room at my mom's house and plugged in his Spanish homework while he could write to me if I was horny, if I wanted to come home to him on some holiday and we would fuck all weekend and that he wanted me to send a picture of my wet pussy. I was 14, I had just discovered my sexuality, what should I send a picture of?
Reporter: What did you answer him then?
Rebecka: I often said no, I will not send a picture of my pussy to you because it was something scary, it was something you had never done before and to a person you did not really know. It was also not something I dared.
Reporter: How did he react when you said no?
Rebecka: He was moaning a lot. He wanted me to send then and said why don't you want to send to me, but come on now. And then I just stopped responding and then it was quiet then until the next time he asked me if I was horny. But even though I said no several times, he always came back and kept writing.
Reporter: So you were really trying to end the contact?
Rebecka: Several times I tried to end the contact.
In the coming months, the man then asks the then 14-year-old Rebecka repeatedly for nude pictures.
"... you have nice body big boobs;)"
"On the way home where I will play in the shower: p send you a picture"
"... I want to see a picture of sexy you"
He also sends a picture of his own genitals, comes up with sexual invitations and asks her for a favor.
Rebecka: He wanted me to groan on the phone for him. Which I did at one time very short and then I put on. But he often prayed several times after I would do it more often and I would do it longer. But there was nothing I did because I started to think "what is it I am doing?
Rebecka: It happened to me then when I was feeling bad one night and I was in the toilet and I wanted to kill myself and I cried and was really sorry and he asked me what do you do for something. I said it, I told him it was like, I'm feeling bad and I'm really sorry and then he asked me if I'm horny. And then I get very angry, I got very angry. Feeling disappointed and thinking what am I doing? This is nothing that helps me, I just feel more shame and guilt that I have contact with an older man even though I know it is wrong.
The mother of one of Rebecca's friends finds out what has happened and sends her to the police station to make a report.
Sexually abusive, against children under the age of 15 - so the police report against the trainer who is then 20 years of age.
Rebecka: I applied because I was scared, because he didn't stop writing to me and it got out of control.
The man admits the crime to the police and just over 1 year later he is convicted of sexual assault. The district court ruled that the crime lasted for four months and targeted a young girl, who has not yet reached the age of sexual self-determination.
The District Court also considers that the crime is of such serious nature that the penalty value of the acts is at the prison level. However, since the man has been punished before and is not considered to risk recidivism, the penalty becomes a conditional sentence and daily fines.
Thomas Billberg: But it's a heinous crime and I don't think, then you shouldn't be a leader. Then you should not be a leader if you do such things to children and youth.
Thomas Billberg from IK Bolton says that the man later quit the club.
That was before the verdict fell and for IK Bolton it would have been difficult to discover what the man was doing in parallel with his coach assignment in the association.
Reporter: What do you think if someone who has never been the leader of a youth boy team with you also commits a crime of that nature?
Thomas Billberg: Yes, as you have told us about what it was for a crime it is terrible, it is a very terrible crime, it does not defend anything. I think that is not good at all and we would at least discover something like that, as if we had taken the matter straight away. Because I know that this club has good values, policies and all such things. So that we would have taken hold of it at once and at the least little idea of anything. But no, we haven't discovered anything.
But judgment is not the end of the man's career. On the contrary - he is looking for new assignments as coach and referee in the youth handball in Stockholm.
XX: Hello, who is it?
Reporter: My name is David Lindahl and I am a reporter on Sweden's Television, Assignment Review. Do you have time for a minute and I can explain my case?
XX: Yes, it depends on what the case is?
Reporter: Well it is that we are working on a program that deals with convicted, that is, convicted people who are inside the youth handball and in that we look at a case that applies to you. You have a sexual crime conviction and you have also been active both as a coach and as a judge in the Stockholm Handball. I would love to talk to you about it and see as well as your view of it all.
XX: Okay, I can't make this decision right now at all.
Reporter: I get it.
XX: I have to think about it for a very good while and do not want to make a decision this week at all.
Reporter: But then I think we can be heard later so we can see.
XX: Unfortunately, it will be next week because I'm very busy this week with both one and the other.
Reporter: Then we will hear next week instead.
XX: We do.
Reporter: Great, thank you very much. Hi.
We have mapped the man's career as a coach and referee in the youth handball. And we contact the clubs he was active in. He is described as a committed and handyman, but also that he can have a hard time taking responsibility and promises more than he can keep.
The year after the verdict, the man is hired by a well-known Stockholm club. Responsible for coach recruitment at Hammarby Handball is today Janne Strandberg.
Janne Strandberg: Yes, he contacted us, this was quite a few years ago. He contacted us and said he wanted to help with children's and youth handball with us. He had played himself and was probably interested in becoming a coach in some form, so he made contact with us and at this time we did not have so many youth teams so he, I offered him to help me, then assist me. And yes, he wanted to do that.
Reporter: Did you know about this sexual harassment judgment he had received just a year before he came to you?
Janne Strandberg: No, I didn't. I found out about it just recently.
Reporter: What do you think about it, that you did not know then when he was actually in your business?
Janne Strandberg: Yes, had it happened today, now it was quite a few years ago, so if it had happened today, this could never have happened.
Reporter: Why not then?
Janne Strandberg: No, we have in recent years, so we have greatly improved our routines around coach recruitment and leadership recruitment. And now the last two years here I would say that we have a very good track of which coaches we pick into the association.
Reporter: What are you doing today that you didn't then?
Janne Strandberg: Partly so, we, or most often me, meet the person in question several times. In addition, not only I but another member of the Board would like to eventually make the decision. But it also says in our agreements that when he signs a coach agreement with us he must submit extracts from the load register and before he can sign a contract we have also taken references from where he has been before.
Reporter: Just this to take an extract from the load register you did not then, why not?
Janne Strandberg: No, we just didn't know we should have done it, I think. And besides, we were an association with quite a few teams. We probably received just the help we got as well and a bit naive then you can really think.
The man is short-lived as a handball coach in Hammarby.
A year later, he started as a boys coach and manager at Stockholm Police IF, where he was active for about a year.
They do not want to participate in the program but write in an email that the man was previously a youth player in the club and that because his parents are active leaders in a cooperation club, they had quotes: "not even a thought to control him". You also feel confident that nothing happened during the time at the club. And writes that:
“So in hindsight (according to information from you) it obviously does not feel good but we always have at least 2 leaders / teams and we see that as a security.
Reportedly, the "crime" is not association-related, there is no excuse to behave that way, but it feels less uncomfortable for us. "
During this period - 2013 - the government has made a decision that helps sports associations, among other things, to check whether leaders, coaches and other adults are suitable for working with children.
from Current:
PGM leaders:
“We will start with stricter rules to protect children from sexual abuse. For now, the government should amend the law so that anyone who comes into contact with children in associations or other non-profit activities can be checked with an extract from the load register ”.
Element:
"People who are going to work with children or have a regular assignment where he or she meets children should be able to be checked in the criminal record."
It is the individual who can, at the request of the association, obtain their own register extract from the police. The so-called limited registry extract is for crimes that involve very serious violations of other people.
It is about serious violent crimes, all sexual offenses, robbery, people robbery or child pornography crimes. If the person is of legal age at the time of the crime, it is visible for ten years after the sentence.
Kalle Björklund is an expert on GDPR. The law governing, inter alia, how sports associations can handle this type of sensitive personal data.
Kalle Björklund: What the association can do according to current legislation then is to just note that there is, you must not save this type of register extract digitally.
Associations may thus require individuals who apply to them to show a limited extract from the load register. But they are not allowed to keep any kind of list or register digitally on unsuitable leaders.
Kalle Björklund: Because then we have GDPR that says that as an organization you cannot digitally store information about criminal convictions, that is a ban. You get to look at it physically when the person seeking the assignment shows it and then you get to decide whether or not you want to hire the person. You really should just watch it and not like having it left, save it. It is very difficult to have any kind of digital blacklisting system with GDPR in mind. Then each club can request an extract each time and not digitize it or save it to the computer. But starting with some form of blacklisting system or having it on the web or intranet or having it in their own system becomes basically impossible.
But despite the new opportunity in 2013 for a limited excerpt, the man can continue his career in youth handball.
After his time at Stockholmspolisens IF he became boy coach for the big club Skuru IK.
Neither do they want to be interviewed in the program, but writes in an email that the man was in the assistant coach for about a year and that he quit at his own request.
"Of course, the current leader would not have been able to work as a leader in our association if we had a working background check and thus knowledge of the judgment."
Today, the club has a completely different control, you write and that you routinely request extracts from the load register.
“It happened, even though it is four years back in time, serves as a good example of why we should have this requirement and why this check should be made. It will now also illustrate in concrete terms the need for this routine when we go out for the coming season and announce our active leaders to submit extracts from the load register without delay. "
In parallel with the coach career, the man also judges boy and girl matches in the Stockholm area.
That's how you knew him at Skogås Handball Club. Where he came in the fall of 2017.
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: He has been known as a referee, he has judged a number of matches here for Skogås count and here in the Östra Gymnasiet's sports hall. It is the Handball Federation that adds those matches and our assessment was that he was a good person, he was well liked as a referee.
Again, here is no excerpt from the load register and therefore misses the man's verdict.
He first trains a girls team at the club, and a few months later a boys team. But must not continue.
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Partly it was that he wanted to focus on his career as a judge, he was very active and partly that here in Skogås we also demand that our leaders be responsible, reliable, respectful , educational, communicative and we also did not think he really lived up to the criteria.
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Now when you look back, you can say on the one hand that it was nice that it was no more than that. But on the other hand, we probably would have gone ahead with both reference taking and also a background check, but we didn't. We didn't have to do this in this case. At the same time as you also feel a responsibility that just because we didn't, he could move on somewhere else so it is ... we sports associations carry a common responsibility. We need to stop this kind of leader.
Reporter: If you had seen this judgment, is it, how inappropriate is it to have such a judgment in your luggage?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Yes, if I were to answer as a sports mom, I am also a mother, then I would say that I would have a very hard time accepting any form of judgment about sexual harassment against children in the role of leader for my children. I would have a lot of trouble for that.
Reporter: If you say as a board member for your club?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Yes, I think we will come to the same conclusion, that it is about the sexual abuse of children there is zero tolerance, it is not acceptable, we must protect our children and young people.
Reporter: So you can say that such a judgment means that you would be expelled from your club?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Yes.
Reporter: It is a sexual offense sentence, but also quite old, it did not happen in the handball. Is there any mitigating circumstance surrounding such a judgment that would make it okay?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: It is clear, it certainly can be and it is difficult to say this in general, but if you have received a judgment that still shows sexual offending against children it is clear you have to look at it specifically but purely in general, it is it is difficult to have confidence in such a person. I would have that as a sports mom anyway.
Reporter: Why then?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: You really want the best for our children, I would not want to expose my children to anything and that risk would still be felt. Then maybe there are really good people who have really improved and taken this seriously but, yes, when it comes to sexual harassment against children, I really think that tolerance is good much lower.
Reporter: Although it has been a long time after the verdict?
Ulrica Engström Nilsson: Although it has been a long time, etc.
Rebecka: I think it's scary that a man who has exposed me to this still gets in touch with girls who are underage given what he seems to have been excited about, what he seems to have been looking for, I don't think that this is something he should be able to be around.
We contact the man again, who now says he wants to participate in the report. And we book an interview.
* Telephone with XX
XX: So I think the easiest is if it would work dot 18 there because then I can still get there
Reporter: Yes, absolutely, we can say 18 and as I said, obviously we will not film your face and we will distort the voice. We take exact details in place with the photographer so that we do the right thing, but so you know, the face will not appear and the voice is distorted.
XX: Yes.
Reporter: great, see you next week.
XX: We do.
Reporter: Thank you very much, hello.
Skogås, Skuru, Stockholm Police and Hammarby - have all missed that the person who entered the child and youth business is convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl for several months. Everyone also says that today they have policies and routines for register extracts, and had they known what the man was convicted of he would never have been allowed into their clubs.
But it is not new policies and changed routines that finally get the man's judgment noticed.
Because there is a person who did what the clubs missed.
Reporter: You were one of the first to discover that this man had a verdict in his luggage, how did it go? How did you do to find it?
Christian Vagman: I have a very good friend who has been a judge until last year who got to know it.
Reporter: How did the person know?
Christian Vagman: He had just said that to that person, and we were curious and thought this is a very bad joke or is it true.
Reporter: What did you do then?
Christian Vagman: Then we simply looked up the judgment and saw that it is true.
Reporter: How did you react then?
Christian Vagman: I was appalled. Especially when I saw the young age of the victim.
Christian Vagman himself played handball when he was younger and has friends in youth handball in Stockholm.
He reacted almost a year ago, when he learned that the man started training a girls team at the IFK Tumba handball club.
Reporter: What did you do when you got that verdict?
Christian Vagman: Then we sent it to Tumba first, who had a chat with him and said he must not be left.
About three weeks after Christian and his friend alerted IFK Tumba, the man quit.
The club says he left the association by consensus - and that checks were made on the man's verdict.
But if the checks were made before or after being alerted by Christian, you do not want to answer.
Reporter: You got the verdict.
Christian Vagman: Yes.
Reporter: But you hadn't seen anything more about the crime itself and what's in it, right?
Christian Vagman: No.
Reporter: But here I have the preliminary investigation ...
We show the police investigation for Christian, with the correspondence between Rebecka and the convicted man.
Christian Vagman: I miss words, it's awful that he continues when he knows the age.
Reporter: How should you cope with this? How to improve it?
Christian Vagman: Take excerpts from the criminal record for all those who judge youth and children's handball and practice youth and children's handball.
Just before the summer of 2019, the National Sports Federation, the sports organization's highest organization, tightened the requirements for the country's sports associations. Now it is no longer an invitation, but now the clubs should request extracts from the load register of whoever wants to come in as a leader.
And right now, a research project is being started at the Stockholm School of Sport and Sports, which will find out, among other things, how well the sports associations are following their own policies and regulations against sexual abuse.
Susanne Johansson: The challenge for sports today lies in how do we take the next step, how do we apply the policy, how do we evaluate the policy so that it actually has the effect it should have, that's where absolutely the challenge and the shortcomings are today and it has emerged time after time in these cases explained in the media and people who testify and so on. Just that there is no preventive work, you are not prepared to deal with this type of case that occurs so you are shocked and you are taken to bed, you do not know how to act. That's the typical scenario.
Susanne Johansson is herself an old elite athlete and former Swedish champion in strength lifting. She is also one of the few who has researched sexual abuse in Sports Sweden.
Susanne Johansson: There is about as much in sports and sports movement as in other social contexts, which is about what the overall state of research says. And in Sweden there is only one study that investigated the occurrence and I did that in 2012. Then there was a sample of 25-year-olds active and among them there was a little over 5.5% who had been exposed to some form of sexual harassment or abuse, sexual acts without consent.
Reporter: How should you act to prevent inappropriate persons from entering a club from the beginning?
Susanne Johansson: It is difficult to do that, so you will never be able to completely prevent it, you have to be realistic and realize but for example this with register extracts is a step and an effort that is still relatively easy in this context and which requires quite small means to control it. So that does not mean that you have, so to speak, secured your business, but it is definitely a step that should be included.
Reporter: Is that somewhere the most basic thing you can do?
Susanne Johansson: Yes, I would say. 1A that you are not convicted of anything but then there are many who are not convicted but it is definitely a first step.
The Stockholm Handball Association expires in 2017 with a press release that all active persons should now be checked with extracts from the load register. The new chairman Jakob Jansson says that:
"We have decided that everyone, regardless of position, must show extracts from the load register".
But the union does not do as they say. Because they had done so, they had discovered the doomed man who for several years had judged matches in the League's youth series.
It is not until Christian Vagman emails and alerts the union in October 2018 that the man's verdict is discovered.
"Hello
I am a very worried handball lover, what makes me worried is that I found out that a judge at you (don't know if he is still a judge, but is that so damn) by name XX is convicted of sexually abusive of a 14 year old. "
Stockholm Handball Association answers:
"Thank you for your e-mail.
We look at this very seriously and we take a closer look at it. "
It is the Stockholm Handball Federation that is responsible for the man in his role as district judge. But neither do they line up for an interview but write in an email that they turned off the man from all the children's and youth handball when they received the information last fall.
“We are constantly working to strengthen the Stockholm Handball's ability to ensure safe sports environments for children. In October 2018, work had begun to include extracts for instructors, district coaches and staff at the office, but unfortunately we had not yet done so for the district judge category. "
Despite the promise from 2017 that all active, regardless of position, should be controlled - it is written that it is not until now, ahead of the 2019/2020 season, that is, over two years later, that they quote : "come forward with the implementation regarding district judges".
Kalle Björklund: Take the job that every time you hire someone they will ask for it. You can also renew it once a year to follow it up even if they have permanent assignments. So taking that work for it is so important, personally I can't see the excuse that this is taking a long time or that it is hard. It is the safe method and it is legal.
Reporter: If you are worried that this might apply to another club or you have the right, for example, to make a call?
Kalle Björklund: Yes, make a call, call the people you know or those you work with and spread it, as long as it is not handled digitally and there is no system for it, it is not illegal.
Kalle Björklund: I understand that it is hard and people work non-profit, but at the same time it is not so hard to ask the person to do it. But I can understand that it may feel like "you don't trust me, you think I'm a sexual offender". But then it is just to say that this is what the regulations look like, we have the right to do so and we must protect the children and then request it. And it is perfectly legal to do so.
Reporter: You have had a career in sports yourself, did you mention that you are also a judge?
Susanne Johansson: Right!
Reporter: In what sport then?
Susanne Johansson: Strength lift.
Reporter: Have you ever been asked to show an extract from your load register.
Susanne Johansson: No, never! I have never really been in my own career to ... I have not encountered any kind of action at all in that case, in some of the sports where I have been active.
When we contact the coach again and send our questions before the interview - including about the crime, why he repeatedly applied to the children's and youth handball and his own responsibility, he no longer wants to participate in the program. So we call him.
* Phone call with coach (XX
Reporter: You have for over seven years, after all, it is that you have applied to various clubs in children's and youth sports - and you have been able to do this because they are the clubs and the unions have not done this check which they say they should do. What do you think you are responsible for?
XX: I have no comment. I just told you that I don't want you to contact me any more and I just want you to do that, you, I don't want to be contacted by you.
Reporter: But why did you keep searching for kids and youth clubs considering what you exposed this 14-year-old ...
XX: I have no comment, I have no comment on that. I've told you that I don't want to be part of this and I have no more comments for you ... then you can interpret it the way you want and I have no more comments.
XX: Thanks a lot, hello.
It has been almost ten years since Rebecka was 14. Today she is an adult, reads to a master of sociology at the university and has moved on from what happened.
Rebecka never played handball herself but hopes that her story can help others and shed light on a problem that has been known for a long time.
Rebecka: You called me when I was sitting, I was on my way home from the university and I had to stop the car because I thought what is this like, who is this man? Then when I heard his name I immediately realized that, yes he is. When you mentioned that this man is still in sports and especially girl sports with minors, then I was also very angry, why he is allowed to be there. Considering what he has done to me.
Rebecka: Even though he has served his sentence, there are still other ways for him to be able to have work, to be able to work with handball, for example, with adults, or perhaps with the men's handball, instead of just having girls.
Rebecka: I would not dare let go of my children, for example, to someone who has exposed someone, someone underage, to what I went through.