For Felix Åkerlund, the stalking began with harmless text messages from a stranger 072 number. What he didn't know at the time was that the text messages would continue to come in for almost four years, take on a threatening tone, and pop up several times a day at any time of the day. The number also sent text messages to girls around Sweden, with various lies about Felix. Someone called from the same number to his employer accusing him of rape and assault, which resulted in an internal investigation.
"The paranoia that arises, everyone is a potential adversary in some way," he says in Documents from Within: Stalker.
Reported the stalking to the police
He reported the text message harassment to the police twice, but both times the case was closed before there was time for an investigation. He felt that there was too little to go on for the police to be able to investigate.
Emelie was superficially acquainted with Felix, and her first and last names were used as senders in the text messages about Felix that were sent to unknown girls. The text messages provoked many and she received a lot of angry calls. Emelie suspected a person close to Felix, recorded phone calls with her and handed them over to the police for help, to no avail.
"They said it's hard to convict someone if you don't have enough evidence," she says.
Judgment in the District Court
It wasn't until the third time Felix reported the harassment that the police investigated the matter. Almost two years later, the verdict came in the district court. The convicted person was the same person that Emelie had first suspected.
"We have so many other things that we have to squeeze in first. This is initially classified as molestation, there is not much status, says Stefan Lundström, who initially led the preliminary investigation.
These are simply not priority cases?
"Not to that extent, when it's in competition with other things, it's not.
Watch the entire Document from within: Stalker on SVT Play or the last episode on November 7 on SVT1 at 21:00.