Man gets 15 years for 'bearded lady' slaying

A 27-year-old man from Umeå in northern Sweden has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for fatally stabbing a 55-year-old woman, who he allegedly thought was a man due to her extensive facial hair. "He thought that she was a man, She had a masculine body, a deep voice, and facial hair," said the man's lawyer, Per Nyberg. The pair are reported to have met during a night drinking on the town in Umeå in northern Sweden in August.

When the evening came to a close, the 55-year-old accompanied the man to his home in the Teg district of the city in order to continue drinking. The evening later took a tragic turn however when the 27-year-old, alleging that he had been sexually harassed, struck back at the 55-year-old with a kitchen knife, stabbing the woman in the throat and gut. Shortly before 7am police were called to the man's home and found the woman dead in the cellar.



The man claimed in court that he had become angry after he drew the erroneous conclusion that the person he had brought home from the bar was in fact a man. In his defence the man cited an incident in his teenage years which had caused him to become wary of homosexual men. The court was not persuaded by the man's purported motive and district prosecutor Peter Jonsson has argued that he, for one, was in no doubt that the slain person was in fact a female.

The state pathologist who carried out the autopsy on the woman's body concluded that she had consumed a large quantity of alcohol and was heavily intoxicated. He furthermore testified to the court that he had reacted to the woman's facial hair growth. "He thought that it was important to mention that the woman was 'tainted by facial hair'," Per Nyberg said.