“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
“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.”
“
“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 strapping 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,
