Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, The - Stieg Larsson [258]
“Fröken Salander, why did you record this film?”
“Bjurman had already subjected me to one rape and was demanding more. The first time he made me suck him off, the old creep. I thought it was going to be a repeat. I thought I’d be able to get such good evidence of what he did that I could then blackmail him into staying away from me. I misjudged him.”
“But why did you go not to the police when you have such … irrefutable evidence?”
“I don’t talk to policemen,” Salander said flatly.
Palmgren stood up from his wheelchair. He supported himself by leaning on the edge of the table. His voice was very clear.
“Our client on principle does not speak to the police or to other persons of authority, and least of all to psychiatrists. The reason is simple. From the time she was a child she tried time and again to talk to police and social workers to explain that her mother was being abused by Alexander Zalachenko. The result in every instance was that she was punished because government civil servants had decided that Zalachenko was more important than she was.”
He cleared his throat and continued.
“And when she eventually concluded that nobody was listening to her, her only means of protecting her mother was to fight Zalachenko with violence. And then this bastard who calls himself a doctor” – he pointed at Teleborian – “wrote a fabricated psychiatric diagnosis which described her as mentally ill, and it gave him the opportunity to keep her in restraints at St Stefan’s for 380 days. What a bastard.”
Palmgren sat down. Judge Iversen was surprised by this outburst. He turned to Salander.
“Would you perhaps like to take a break …”
“Why?” Salander said.
“Alright, then we’ll continue. Advokat Giannini, the recording will be examined, and I will require a technical opinion to verify its authenticity. But I cannot tolerate seeing any more of these appalling scenes at present. Let’s proceed.”
“Gladly. I too find them appalling,” said Giannini. “My client has been subjected to multiple instances of physical and mental abuse and legal misconduct. And the person most to blame for this is Dr Peter Teleborian. He betrayed his oath as a physician and he betrayed his patient. Together with a member of an illegal group within the Security Police, Gunnar Björck, he patched together a forensic psychiatric assessment for the purpose of locking up an inconvenient witness. I believe that this case must be unique in Swedish jurisprudence.”
“These are outrageous accusations,” Teleborian said. “I have done my best to help Lisbeth Salander. She tried to murder her father. It’s perfectly obvious that there’s something wrong with her—”
Giannini interrupted him.
“I would now like to bring to the attention of the court Dr Teleborian’s second forensic psychiatric assessment of my client, presented at this trial today. I maintain that it is a lie, just as the report from 1991 was a lie.”
“Well, this is simply—” Teleborian spluttered.
“Judge Iversen, could you please ask the witness to stop interrupting me?”
“Herr Teleborian …”
“I will be quiet. But these are outrageous accusations. It’s not surprising that I’m upset—”
“Herr Teleborian, please be quiet until a question is directed at you. Do go on, Advokat Giannini.”
“This is the forensic psychiatric assessment that Dr Teleborian has presented to the court. It is based on what he has termed ‘observations’ of my client which were supposed to have taken place after she was moved to Kronoberg prison on June 5. The examination was supposed to have been concluded on July 5.”
“Yes, so I have understood,” Judge Iversen said.
“Dr Teleborian, is it the case that you did not have the opportunity to examine or observe my client before June 6? Before that she was at Sahlgrenska hospital in Göteborg, where she was being kept in isolation, as we know.”
“Yes.”
“You made attempts on two separate occasions to gain access to my client at Sahlgrenska. Both times you were denied admittance.”
Giannini opened her briefcase and took out a document. She walked around her