“My client has just been released and the preliminary investigation has been dropped,” the 32-year-old’s lawyer, Thomas Ljungdahl, told the local Kristianstadsbladet newspaper on Wednesday.

The man had been held since he was arrested in Malmö on the evening of July 3rd after the girl’s parents called police to say the 16-year-old had been kidnapped.

They reported having received a text message from their daughter saying she was being held captive by the 32-year-old, with whom she had first come to know through contacts made on an internet chat room.

By the time police caught up with the man, he had driven her more than 100 kilometres from her home of Kristianstad in southern Sweden to the Rosengård district of Malmö.

Suspicions that the girl had been kidnapped were strengthened when police found her wearing handcuffs in the back of the man’s car.

Due to the serious nature of the criminal suspicions against him, the 32-year-old was ordered held on remand while prosecutors investigated the case.

However, a search of the man’s computer revealed evidence that the 16-year-old had actually been a willing participant in her own mock abduction.

“The plaintiff had agreed to everything that happened, which was confirmed by a review of the 32-year-old’s computer,” Ljungahl told the paper.

“Due to the special circumstances of the case, it’s not possible to back up accusations that a crime has taken place.”

Attempts to reach the prosecutor for comment on the case were unsuccessful.

TT/The Local/dl

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