THE GUARDIAN has published what it claims are details of the sworn statements give to police by two Swedish women who claim sexual impropriety against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
An arrest warrant for Assange was issued in Sweden in August after he was suspected of raping the two women involved, and is currently fighting an extradition warrant to Sweden where he is still wanted in connection with the allegations, though no formal charges have been made.
The Guardian’s documents – to which it says it gained unauthorised access – indicate that the first of the two women, identified as Miss A, invited Assange to stay at her flat for his ten-day visit to Sweden on the understanding that she was due to be absent.
She had returned to Stockholm early, she said, and the two had gone out for a meal before returning to her flat where Assange had started stroking her leg, and then began to pull her clothes off.
She had “tried to put on some articles of clothing, as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably,” but Assange had, she said, ripped them back off again.
At that point she felt it was “too late to stop Assange, as she had gone along with it so far” and thus allowed him to undress her.
Assange had refused to wear a condom, and Miss A had tried to reach for one for him to wear, but he had resisted by holding her down by the arms and legs before then agreeing to wear it.
Miss A alleges, however, that Assange had deliberately “done something” to the condom to tear it. Assange later told police that their sex was consensual, and he was unaware that the condom had torn. He had continued to speed in Miss A’s bed for the following week and no mention of the torn condom was ever made, he said.
The following day, it is alleged, Assange met the second woman – Miss W, a friend of Miss A – at a lunch; they had later gone to the cinema, where they sat in the back row and kissed while he had put his hands inside her clothes.
Two days later Miss W called Assange to meet him again; they went back to her flat, in the outskirts of Stockholm. There the two had started to have sex, but Assange had again not wanted to wear a condom. He fell asleep, disinterested.
The next day, the documents continue, Miss W woke up to find Assange having sex with her, and when she asked him he said he was not wearing a condom. She said she had been “going on about the condom all night” and “couldn’t be bothered” to raise the subject again.
Police statements record Miss W – who said she had never had unprotected sex before – had contacted Assange and asked him to have an STD test, but he said he had no time to do so.
Later that week Miss W had texted Miss A in attempts to contact Assange; they met and compared stories, after which Miss A told Assange to take a test; if he did not, she said, they would go to the police with their stories. Assange rejected this as blackmail.
When he did agree to take a test, the police statements say, clinics had closed for the weekend. That night, the story was broken by Swedish tabloid paper Expressen.
Speaking on Thursday after being released on bail pending an extradition hearing, Assange insisted he was the victim of a smear campaign.
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