Alva's Nightmare: Living Next to the Man She Accused of Rape

After a terrifying night, Alva and Ida reported two men for rape. Now, two years later, the men have been acquitted. One of them has moved to a residence just 300 meters from Alva.

"No matter how much you try to heal, you're constantly reminded," she says. Meanwhile, the friends feel mocked by the justice system.

On January 16, 2025, a bombshell drops for Alva and Ida. Their legal representative calls to inform them: the men have been released from custody.

Their world collapses.

The next day, when the verdict arrives and it becomes clear that the men are acquitted of rape, it shatters a bit more.

Alva describes her initial feeling with one word:

"Panic."

"While they were in custody, we could breathe a little easier. We could move around without worrying they would show up. Then it was like being thrown back into reality," she says.

Friend Ida adds:

"I broke down. It felt so good after the trial. It was really tough, but it felt like we were being listened to and believed."

Today, the experience is different.

Five months have passed since the verdict, and the two women, both 20 years old, welcome us into Alva's home in a town in Jönköping County.

They sit on the couch and begin to talk.

Quietly, thoughtfully, and expressively. They seek support in each other's eyes, sometimes finishing each other's sentences.

Alva and Ida say they want to speak out because they feel they haven't been taken seriously. Because it feels like they've screamed as loud as they can without anyone listening.

A Night of Terror

It was in March 2023 when the then 18-year-old friends met two men on their way to a party. They exchanged Snapchat, met up again later that evening, and went to Ida's apartment to continue drinking.

Then their stories diverge.

The women described a night of terror. They felt the men pushed them to drink and have memory gaps. But they remember being repeatedly raped while heavily intoxicated.

The men, however, a 27-year-old and a 31-year-old, denied the crime and claimed the sexual encounters were consensual.

Court Acquits of Rape

When the verdict came in January, Jönköping District Court noted that the men had "given several strange answers," that the prosecutor's evidence "largely" supported the charges, that Alva's and Ida's stories appeared credible, and that the young women's reactions afterward—such as Alva hysterically calling her counselor—"strongly suggest they were subjected to assault."

But the court also wrote that some evidence "speaks against the sexual encounters being conducted without the complainants' consent" and also against the complainants being in a particularly vulnerable situation due to intoxication.

Thus, the men were acquitted.

And the acquittal has become final.

Criticism: Didn't Get Help

Alva and Ida say they wanted to appeal but didn't get the help they expected.

They felt that their legal representative and the prosecutor were initially supportive but changed after the verdict.

"We were called to a meeting with the legal representative where she said that she and the prosecutor neither wanted nor intended to appeal. We tried to ask why, but everything was very unclear," Alva explains.

She and Ida have also reacted to several other things.

Among other things, that videos and audio recordings from the evening that the friends submitted, which they claim prove they were heavily intoxicated, were not included in the investigation. And that the results from the blood and saliva tests they took at the hospital were not presented in court.

Afterward, they haven't found the results, neither with the police nor in their records.

And the court's reasoning about the condom packages (see fact box above) they see as "an insult."

"I felt such anger when I read that it could indicate consent," says Ida.

Expressen has been in contact with the prosecutor and the legal representative, who do not share the young women's view (see fact box below). They state, briefly, that they have done what they should and that no mistakes have been made.

Neighbor – with the Man She Reported

Both young women have felt bad after the incident and find it difficult to move on. Ida says she cannot start her PTSD treatment until the part of the verdict concerning offensive photography is decided in the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, one of the men has moved—and now lives just a couple of hundred meters away from Alva.

When she discovered this in the spring, she called Ida in panic.

"I felt extremely unsafe. We've both struggled with poor mental health and flashbacks, but after the trial, we could start processing it a bit. But when I found out he lived here, everything came back. I don't want to go out alone anymore. I always have someone with me and don't dare go out without pepper spray in my jacket pocket."

Alva doesn't know if it's a coincidence that the man has moved there, but she says her address was included in the papers he got to see during the trial. Now she sees him from a distance now and then—and is afraid of what might happen if they one day come face to face.

"Whatever we do, we can't escape or relax."

Alva finds it hard to understand that the man has been able to settle so close to her. She says she can understand that he, legally and objectively, as an acquitted person, has the right to live wherever he wants.

"But he knows, between us, what happened that night. And if it were me accused of something like that, I wouldn't want to live even in the same city as that person."

Urging to Report

Despite everything that has happened, Alva and Ida are glad they reported, and they advise other girls to do the same.

"Even though it's tough. I think if more people stand up, maybe there will be a difference," says Ida.

Alva adds:

"It's also important not to feel any shame over something another person has done wrong."