Swedish serial rapist sentenced to 12 years

A Swedish court on Wednesday jailed a 24-year-old convicted rapist for 12 years for terrorising a small town in central Sweden for years. The man, named as Niklas Eliasson and described as the country's worst serial rapist, was found guilty in April of two cases of aggravated rape, six attempted rapes, two counts of aggravated assault and two of sexual assault. He was also convicted of attempted robbery, threats, and weapons violations, but was acquitted on two counts of attempted rape, one of robbery and another of assault. After a psychiatric examination determined he was mentally fit, the Oerebro district court on Wednesday sentenced Eliasson to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay a total of 780,000 kroner (85,279 euros, $121,926) in compensation to his victims. All the offences were carried out in and around Oerebro between 2005 and 2010, but his crime spree accelerated towards the end, and he committed one rape and six other sex crimes in the space of a five days in October 2010. Amid mounting panic, Oerebro police launched a massive manhunt, finally arresting Eliasson on October 11 last year.