As is well known, a key reason why Jeffrey Epstein was able to commit his unimaginable amount of abuse for so many years was that those around him preferred to look the other way. Relativize. That is, in cases where they themselves did not participate. Around him was a group of educated, well-mannered people who saw but did not see, heard but did not hear.
The same selective tunnel vision seems to occur all over the world when a reasonably likeable, socially competent man of position and authority commits abuse. Afterwards everyone is shocked. Nobody understood it. Nobody had a clue. Do I even need to mention Arnault, Weinstein, Cosby, R. Kelly, Jackson…?
Add a medial A perfect storm is emerging in a narrative in which certain heavyweight journalists appear to have made it their life’s mission to profile “innocent defendants,” victims of vengeful ex-wives, seductive teenagers, or lying children, and a legal system that manages rather than prosecutes crime. In this storm, the perpetrators can continue in peace, supported by a culture that has enormous difficulty believing in women and children.
With the unlikely story of Epstein ringing in the ears, where one unthinkable celebrity/ruler/royalty after another has been exposed as blind ass-licking enablers, a horrific but entirely logical story unfolds in SvD’s podcast Blenda’s new documentary series “Staffan Hildebrand’s New Life.” Journalist Magnus Arvidson visits film director Staffan Hildebrand in his new home in Cambodia, where he moved after being accused of abusing boys in 2021. The allegations were in connection with the book “G – som i gärningsman” by Sören “Sulo” Karlsson and Deanne Rauscher. Hildebrand admitted to having sex with the boys.
Hildebrand’s network included several high-ranking politicians, ministers, police officers and financiers. Many seem to have had a strikingly naive approach to what was happening
Appears in the book the image of a man who, like Epstein, used his position of power to gain access to young people in dependent relationships. The youth films became a pretext, a door opener, to lure lost teenagers to his apartment on Bellmansgatan, which soon turned into a meeting place, an amusement park where young boys could hang out, party and spend the night. A place where boundaries slowly dissolved. A neverland of our own.
In the 1980s, Hildebrand was an influential person in Swedish cultural life and the film industry. He had success with the film “G som i Gemenskap” and a few years later with the film “Stockholmsnatt”, which cemented his nickname as the first interpreter of Swedish youth culture. He also made several commissioned films on behalf of authorities and organizations. The money came from, among others, the Social Democrats, LO, SF, Telia (then Televerket), SVT, Fryshuset and Electrolux. To name just a few.
Hildebrand’s network included several high-ranking politicians, ministers, police officers and financiers. The corridors of power were not far away. Many seem to have had a strikingly naive approach to what was happening. Rumors about his strong interest in little boys wafted through the rooms like cigarette smoke: visible, palpable – but easily dismissed.
It’s like being faced with a rerun that refuses to acknowledge that it’s already aired. Same lines. The same self-image
Like Epstein, Hildebrand presents himself as a benefactor, a mentor, someone who just wants to help. Now he lives in Cambodia, a country often described as a paradise for Western sexual predators, in the shadow of a colonial power imbalance that still shapes the relationship between rich and poor. Here, 79-year-old Staffan can live comfortably on his pension. He has a 35-year-old friend, Tea, who says he “looks twenty, twenty-five at the most.” He has two foster sons whom he supports financially in return for calling them sons and becoming part of their family.
children of foster sons, his “grandson” is the same age as some of the boys he once abused. But her father isn’t worried. He trusts Staffan.
“In Sweden they see me as a perpetrator, here I’m a hero!” Hildebrand says happily and says that he now wants to produce a “G som i Gemenskap” (his 1983 film, which had a great impact and starred Niklas Wahlgren) in Cambodia with Cambodian young people. He has already contacted several people via WhatsApp because, as he says himself: “I’m very good at selecting young people.”
Somewhere around here I can hardly listen anymore.
It’s like being faced with a rerun that refuses to acknowledge that it’s already aired. Same lines. The same self-image. The same environment that chooses to believe in the enchanting story of the helper, the mentor, the man of culture.
History repeats itself not by accident. It repeats itself because it is allowed. Because time and again we let the words of compassionate men outweigh the statements of children and women. Because the network of power is denser than our collective memory.
How is that possible?
Maybe because we are still fascinated by the story of the perpetrator and not the story of the victim. Maybe because we prefer to describe abuse as a natural disaster that is inevitable rather than admit that we are the ones holding up the protective shield.
And maybe that’s it The truly frightening question is not how it happened – but why, with the curtain open, it is still happening.
Also read about Jeffrey Epstein in DN.
