Millennium 03 - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

by Stieg Larsson

  “From the prosecutor’s presentation we may conclude that he has a great many opinions but a woeful shortage of evidence. He believes that Lisbeth Salander shot Carl-Magnus Lundin in Stallarholmen. He claims that she went to Gosseberga to kill her father. He assumes that my client is a paranoid schizophrenic and mentally ill in every sense. And he bases this assumption on information from a single source, to wit, Dr Peter Teleborian.”

  She paused to catch her breath and forced herself to speak slowly.

  “As it now stands, the case presented by the prosecutor rests on the testimony of Dr Teleborian. If he is right, then my client would be best served by receiving the expert psychiatric care that both he and the prosecutor are seeking.”

  Pause.

  “But if Dr Teleborian is wrong, this prosecution case must be seen in a different light. Furthermore, if he is lying, then my client is now, here in this courtroom, being subjected to a violation of her civil rights, a violation that has gone on for many years.”

  She turned to face Ekström.

  “What we shall do this afternoon is to show that your witness is a false witness, and that you as prosecutor have been deceived into accepting these false testimonies.”

  Teleborian flashed a smile. He held out his hands and nodded to Giannini, as if applauding her presentation. Giannini now turned to the judge.

  “Your honour. I will show that Dr Teleborian’s so-called forensic psychiatric investigation is nothing but a deception from start to finish. I will show that he is lying about Lisbeth Salander. I will show that my client has in the past been subjected to a gross violation of her rights. And I will show that she is just as sane and intelligent as anyone in this room.”

  “Excuse me, but—” Ekström began.

  “Just a moment.” She raised a finger. “I have for two days allowed you to talk uninterrupted. Now it’s my turn.”

  She turned back to Judge Iversen.

  “I would not make so serious an accusation before the court if I did not have ample evidence to support it.”

  “By all means, continue,” the judge said. “But I don’t want to hear any long-winded conspiracy theories. Bear in mind that you can be charged with slander for statements that are made before a court.”

  “Thank you. I will bear that in mind.”

  She turned to Teleborian. He still seemed entertained by the situation.

  “The defence has repeatedly asked to be allowed to examine Lisbeth Salander’s medical records from the time when she, in her early teens, was committed to your care at St Stefan’s. Why have we not been shown those records?”

  “Because a district court decreed that they were classified. That decision was made out of solicitude for Lisbeth Salander, but if a higher court were to rescind that decision, I would naturally hand them over.”

  “Thank you. For how many nights during the two years that Lisbeth Salander spent at St Stefan’s was she kept in restraints?”

  “I couldn’t recall that offhand.”

  “She herself claims that it was 380 out of the total of 786 days and nights she spent at St Stefan’s.”

  “I can’t possibly answer as to the exact number of days, but that is a fantastic exaggeration. Where do those figures come from?”

  “From her autobiography.”

  “And you believe that today she is able to remember accurately each night she was kept in restraints? That’s preposterous.”

  “Is it? How many nights do you recall?”

  “Lisbeth Salander was an extremely aggressive and violence-prone patient, and undoubtedly she was placed in a stimulus-free room on a number of occasions. Perhaps I should explain the purpose of a stimulus-free room—”

  “Thank you, that won’t be necessary. According to theory, it is a room in which a patient is denied any sensory input that might provoke agitation. For how many days and nights did thirteen-year-old Lisbeth Salander lie strapped down in such a room?”

  “It would be … I would estimate perhaps on thirty occasions during the time she was at the hospital.”

  “Thirty. Now that’s only a fraction of the 380 that she claims.”

  “Undeniably.”

  “Not even 10 per cent of her figure.”

  “Yes …”

  “Would her medical records perhaps give us more accurate information?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Excellent,” Giannini said, taking out a large sheaf of paper from her briefcase. “Then I ask to be allowed to hand over to the court a copy of Lisbeth Salander’s medical records from St Stefan’s. I have counted the number of notes about the restraining straps and find that the figure is 381, one more than my client claims.”

  Teleborian’s eyes widened.

  “Stop … this is classified information. Where did you get that from?”

  “I got it from a reporter at Millennium magazine. It can hardly be classified if it’s lying around a newspaper’s offices. Perhaps I should add that extracts from these medical records were published today in Millennium. I believe, therefore, that even this district court should have the opportunity to look at the records themselves.”

  “This is illegal—”

  “No, it isn’t. Lisbeth Salander has given her permission for the extracts to be published. My client has nothing to hide.”

  “Your client has been declared incompetent and has no right to make any such decision for herself.”

  “We’ll come back to her declaration of incompetence. But first we need to examine what happened to her at St Stefan’s.”

  Judge Iversen frowned as he accepted the papers that Giannini handed to him.

  “I haven’t made a copy for the prosecutor. On the other hand, he received a copy of this privacy-invading document more than a month ago.”

  “How did that happen?” the judge said.

  “Prosecutor Ekström got a copy of these classified records from Teleborian at a meeting which took place in his office at 5.00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4 this year.”

  “Is that correct?” Judge Iversen said.

  Ekström’s first impulse was to deny it. Then he realized that Giannini might somehow have evidence.

  “I requested permission to read parts of the records if I signed a confidentiality agreement,” Ekström said. “I had to make sure that Salander had the history she was alleged to have.”

  “Thank you,” Giannini said. “This means that we now have confirmation that Dr Teleborian not only tells lies but also broke the law by disseminating records that he himself claims are classified.”

  “Duly noted,” said the judge.

  Judge Iversen was suddenly very alert. In a most unorthodox way, Giannini had launched a serious attack on a witness, and she already made mincemeat of an important part of his testimony. And she claims that she can document everything she says. Judge Iversen adjusted his glasses.

  “Dr Teleborian, based on these records which you yourself wrote … could you now tell me how many days Lisbeth Salander was kept in restraints?”

  “I have no recollection that it could have been so extensive, but if that’s what the records say, then I have to believe it.”

  “A total of 381 days and nights. Does that not strike you as excessive?”

  “It is unusually long … yes.”

  “How would you perceive it if you were thirteen years old and someone strapped you to a steel-framed bed for more than a year? Would it feel like torture?”

  “You have to understand that the patient was dangerous to herself as well as to others—”

  “O.K. Let’s look at dangerous to herself. Has Lisbeth Salander ever injured herself?”

  “There were such misgivings—”

  “I’ll repeat the question: has Lisbeth Salander ever injured herself? Yes or no?”

  “As psychiatrists we must teach ourselves to interpret the overall picture. With regard to Lisbeth Salander, you can see on her body, for example, a multitude of tattoos and piercings, which are also a
form of self-destructive behaviour and a way of damaging one’s own body. We can interpret that as a manifestation of self-hate.”

  Giannini turned to Salander.

  “Are your tattoos a manifestation of self-hate?” she said.

  “No,” Salander said.

  Giannini turned back to Teleborian. “So you believe that I am also dangerous to myself because I wear earrings and actually have a tattoo in a private place?”

  Palmgren sniggered, but he managed to transform the snigger into a clearing of his throat.

  “No, not at all … tattoos can also be part of a social ritual.”

  “Are you saying that Lisbeth Salander is not part of this social ritual?”

  “You can see for yourself that her tattoos are grotesque and extend over large parts of her body. That is no normal measure of fetishism or body decoration.”

  “What percentage?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “At what percentage of tattooed body surface does it stop being fetishism and become a mental illness?”

  “You’re distorting my words.”

  “Am I? How is it that, in your opinion, it is part of a wholly acceptable social ritual when it applies to me or to other young people, but it becomes dangerous when it’s a matter of evaluating my client’s mental state?”

  “As a psychiatrist I have to look at the whole picture. The tattoos are merely an indicator. As I have already said, it is one of many indicators which need to be taken into account when I evaluate her condition.”

  Giannini was silent for a few seconds as she fixed Teleborian with her gaze. She now spoke very slowly.

  “But Dr Teleborian, you began strapping down my client when she was twelve years old, going on thirteen. At that time she did not have a single tattoo, did she?”

  Teleborian hesitated and Giannini went on.

  “I presume that you did not strap her down because you predicted that she would begin tattooing herself sometime in the future.”

  “Of course not. Her tattoos had nothing to do with her condition in 1991.”

  “With that we are back to my original question. Did Lisbeth Salander ever injure herself in a way that would justify keeping her bound to a bed for a whole year? For example, did she cut herself with a knife or a razor blade or anything like that?”

  Teleborian looked unsure for a second.

  “No … I used the tattoos as an example of self-destructive behaviour.”

  “And we have just agreed that tattoos are a legitimate part of a social ritual. I asked why you restrained her for a year and you replied that it was because she was a danger to herself.”

  “We had reason to believe that she was a danger to herself.”

  “Reason to believe. So you’re saying that you restrained her because you guessed something?”

  “We carried out assessments.”

  “I have now been asking the same question for about five minutes. You claim that my client’s self-destructive behaviour was one reason why she was strapped down for a total of more than a year out of the two years she was in your care. Can you please finally give me some examples of the self-destructive behaviour she evidenced at the age of twelve?”

  “The girl was extremely undernourished, for example. This was partially due to the fact that she refused food. We suspected anorexia.”

  “I see. Was she anorexic? As you can see, my client is even today uncommonly thin and fine-boned.”

  “Well, it’s difficult to answer that question. I would have to observe her eating habits for quite a long time.”

  “You did observe her eating habits – for two years. And now you’re suggesting that you confused anorexia with the fact that my client is small and thin. You say that she refused food.”

  “We were compelled to force-feed her on several occasions.”

  “And why was that?”

  “Because she refused to eat, of course.”

  Giannini turned to her client.

  “Lisbeth, is it true that you refused to eat at St Stefan’s?”

  “Yes.”

  “And why was that?”

  “Because that bastard was mixing psychoactive drugs into my food.”

  “I see. So Dr Teleborian wanted to give you medicine. Why didn’t you want to take it?”

  “I didn’t like the medicine I was being given. It made me sluggish. I couldn’t think and I was sedated for most of the time I was awake. And the bastard refused to tell me what the drugs contained.”

  “So you refused to take the medicine?”

  “Yes. Then he began putting the crap in my food instead. So I stopped eating. Every time something had been put in my food, I stopped eating for five days.”

  “So you had to go hungry.”

  “Not always. Several of the attendants smuggled sandwiches in to me on various occasions. One in particular gave me food late at night. That happened quite often.”

  “So you think that the nursing staff at St Stefan’s saw that you were hungry and gave you food so that you would not have to starve?”

  “That was during the period when I was battling with this bastard over psychoactive drugs.”

  “Tell us what happened.”

  “He tried to drug me. I refused to take his medicine. He started putting it in my food. I refused to eat. He started force-feeding me. I began vomiting up the food.”

  “So there was a completely rational reason why you refused the food.”

  “Yes.”

  “It was not because you didn’t want food?”

  “No. I was often hungry.”

  “And since you left St Stefan’s … do you eat regularly?”

  “I eat when I’m hungry.”

  “Would it be correct to say that a conflict arose between you and Dr Teleborian?”

  “You could say that.”

  “You were sent to St Stefan’s because you had thrown petrol at your father and set him on fire.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because he abused my mother.”

  “Did you ever explain that to anyone?”

  “Yes.”

  “And who was that?”

  “I told the police who interviewed me, the social workers, the children’s care workers, the doctors, a pastor, and that bastard.”

  “By ‘that bastard’ you are referring to …?”

  “That man.” She pointed at Dr Teleborian.

  “Why do you call him a bastard?”

  “When I first arrived at St Stefan’s I tried to explain to him what had happened.”

  “And what did Dr Teleborian say?”

  “He didn’t want to listen to me. He claimed that I was fantasizing. And as punishment I was to be strapped down until I stopped fantasizing. And then he tried to force-feed me psychoactive drugs.”

  “This is nonsense,” Teleborian said.

  “Is that why you won’t speak to him?”

  “I haven’t said a word to the bastard since the night I turned thirteen. I was strapped to the bed. It was my birthday present to myself.”

  Giannini turned to Teleborian. “This sounds as if the reason my client refused to eat was that she did want the psychoactive drugs you were forcing upon her.”

  “It’s possible that she views it that way.”

  “And how do you view it?”

  “I had a patient who was abnormally difficult. I maintain that her behaviour showed that she was a danger to herself, but this might be a question of interpretation. However, she was violent and exhibited psychotic behaviour. There is no doubt that she was dangerous to others. She came to St Stefan’s after she tried to murder her father.”

  “We’ll get to that later. For 381 of those days you kept her in restraints. Could it have been that you used strapping as a way to punish my client when she didn’t do as you said?”

  “That is utter nonsense.”

  “Is it? I notice that according to the records the majority of the strappi
ng occurred during the first year … 320 of 381 instances. Why was the strapping discontinued?”

  “I suppose the patient changed her behaviour and became less agitated.”

  “Is it not true that your measures were considered unnecessarily brutal by other members of staff?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Is it not true that the staff lodged complaints against the forcefeeding of Lisbeth Salander, among other things?”

  “Inevitably people will arrive at differing evaluations. This is nothing unusual. But it became a burden to force-feed her because she resisted so violently—”

  “Because she refused to take psychoactive drugs which made her listless and passive. She had no problem eating when she was not being drugged. Wouldn’t that have been a more reasonable method of treatment than resorting to forcible measures?”

  “If you don’t mind my saying so, Fru Giannini, I am actually a physician. I suspect that my medical expertise is rather more extensive than yours. It is my job to determine what medical treatments should be employed.”

  “It’s true, I’m not a physician, Doctor Teleborian. However, I am not entirely lacking in expertise. Besides my qualifications as lawyer I was also trained as a psychologist at Stockholm University. This is necessary background training in my profession.”

  You could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom. Both Ekström and Teleborian stared in astonishment at Giannini. She continued inexorably.

  “Is it not correct that your methods of treating my client eventually resulted in serious disagreements between you and your superior, Dr Johannes Caldin, head physician at the time?”

  “No, that is not correct.”

  “Dr Caldin passed away several years ago and cannot give testimony. But here in the court we have someone who met Dr Caldin on several occasions. Namely my assistant counsel, Holger Palmgren.”

  She turned to him.

  “Can you tell us how that came about?”

  Palmgren cleared his throat. He still suffered from the after-effects of his stroke and had to concentrate to pronounce the words.

  “I was appointed as trustee for Lisbeth Salander after her mother was so severely beaten by Lisbeth’s father that she was disabled and could no longer take care of her daughter. She suffered permanent brain damage and repeated brain haemorrhages.”