Peter Karlsson: The painful verdict on Swedish ice hockey player's 1995 killing
When Leif Rohlin walked into the locker room for a Saturday training session, the police were there. They told him that his friend and former team-mate had been killed in the street, not far from where he lived.
"It was completely absurd," Rohlin says now. "There were a couple of us out on the ice that knew him well. I think playing the game wouldn't be on the table had it happened today. We would have been given some breathing space." There were no witnesses to what happened that night. The court had to rely heavily on the testimony of the defendant, who said that he was stricken by rage and panic. When searching his home, the police had found pamphlets with anti-gay propaganda.
"I don't think the courts got to hear enough about what type of guy Peter actually was," he says, adding that they would have a hard time finding anyone in Vasteras who wouldn't describe him as harmless.Dennis Martinsson, an assistant professor and expert in criminal law at Stockholm University, is of the same opinion. In his view, details such as the anti-gay literature found at the killer's home were not given proper consideration either.
In the UK, the tactic is thought to have declined since 2003, when the Crown Prosecution Service published guidance on its "proactive approach" towards "homophobic or transphobic crime". "There used to be a plaque commemorating what happened right here. I don't know why they took it down," he sighs.
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