Nobel scandal man guilty of second rape

VICTIM APPEALED PRIOR RULING

A MAN at the centre of a scandal that has engulfed the body that awards the Nobel Prize in literature has been convicted of a second rape.

Yesterday, the Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden gave Jean-Claude Arnault two and a half years in jail for raping the same woman twice seven years ago.

In October, the 72-year-old Frenchman, who is married to a former member of the Swedish Academy board, was found guilty of one rape in 2011 and was sentenced to two years.

He was acquitted of a second rape because the victim said she was asleep at the time and the lower Stockholm District Court said her account was not reliable.

But the appeals court made “a different assessment”, saying it was “beyond any reasonable doubt that the accused was guilty of rape” in the second case. The woman’s deposition “gave a credible impression”, it said, adding that her account “was strongly supported by those of several witnesses”, and it found them “reliable and sufficient” for a conviction.

The court also said it had taken into consideration Arnault’s age and “the unusually long time from the offence committed to the prosecution”.

The sex abuse scandal led eight Swedish Academy members to either leave or disassociate themselves from the secretive body’s 18-member board.