Bobby's mother: boyfriend liked torture

Prosecutors began by asking the woman how she met the man who became her boyfriend, and how the situation changed when she and Bobby moved into his farm in Småland.

The court was shown two lists written by the woman, in which she weighed up the pros and cons of moving in with her boyfriend. On the plus side, she wrote that he had a house, a car and a boat. On the minus side, she wrote that he was dominant, jealous, that he tried to change her and that he had sick fantasies.

Before moving in together, the pair spoke to each other every day for hours on the phone. When the man asked for a photos of the woman, he asked that it be of her feet.

"He was interested in feet and in torture," the woman said.

She told the court that she took part in sex games that she wasn't particularly keen in. But she said that she wanted to do what he asked and set the condition that he must not cause her pain. After a while, however, he started to break this condition.

"I didn't dare. I didn't know how far he would go," she said about her boyfriend.

The man's relationship with Bobby was good, at least at the beginning, the woman considered. There were, however, issues of conflict, and Bobby was not allowed to eat with his mother and her boyfriend.

Bobby seemed to enjoy school, but was lonely on the family's isolated farm.

The mother was asked earlier about her partner's sadistic tendencies and how they frightened her.

Her lawyer, Anders Berggren, said that she carried out assaults on her son to protect him. Her presence would limit the harm done to Bobby.

Berggren gave no more details of these assaults today, despite direct questions from the judges. He said he wanted to wait until a later stage in the trial before giving more information.

The boyfriend said through his lawyer yesterday that he had a good relationship with Bobby, while the woman was described as a bad mother.

The mother's lawyer today painted a different picture on the atmosphere in the family's home. The boyfriend did not want Bobby around, Berggren said, and his violence against her was frightening.

"The electric shocks were worst," her lawyer said.

The boyfriend's lawyer opposed the decision to send him out during the mother's evidence. He contested the woman's claim that she was afraid of her partner.

Per Oehme said that the woman had sent a note to the man on Tuesday via a prosecutor, in which she said she wanted to break of their engagement. This, he suggested, indicated she was not as afraid as she was making out.

The mother has admitted in questioning that she had been involved in assaulting the boy, but claimed she did so under duress. Her partner claimed that much of what he was accused of had never taken place, and that the woman had been violent towards the boy.

During the first day of the trial on Tuesday, Per Oehme presented evidence including telephone messages and notes in which the woman had written about sex and violence and which were reminiscent of the violence to which Bobby had been subjected. Berggren, however, says the woman wrote the notes under orders from her boyfriend.

The case is expected to continue for around one more week.