Several weeks ago, Metal Insider broke the story that Necrophobic frontman Tobias Sidegard had been in prison on charges that he’d abused his wife and children. While he’d been sentenced to 18 months, the vocalist e-mailed us later that day, stating that he was out of prison following a second appeal and that the final judgment would be in two weeks. The sentence was handed down earlier today, and Sidegard has still been found guilty, but he’ll only be doing six months, as opposed to the 18 that he’d been originally sentenced to.
Sidegard was found guilty of two charges of “abuse.” He was originally accused of “severe abuse to a female partner.” The court found that testimony from his ex-wife Linda was not found altogether trustworthy, in that she hadn’t been totally forthcoming about her own drug use. That seems to have played a part in the reduced sentence. The court still had full trust in the testimony the children gave, however. As part of the term, he has to pay Linda 16,000 kronor plus interest, which works out to around $2,500. It’s not known whether time already served will shorten his sentence.
This will probably put a bit of a damper on promotional plans for Necrophobic’s Womb of Lilithu, which is still scheduled to be released on October 25th. The band said that they would have no comment on the matter until after things were resolved. They haven’t commented on Sidegard’s sentence yet, though.
