Sweden took a man who murdered his own children and put him in a prison full of women. The women say they're paying for it.
The murders
In April 2024, Paulus Abdelshahed killed his two children, a boy and a girl aged 7 and 8, in the family's home in Södertälje, south of Stockholm. He suffocated them with helium. He admitted it.
In December 2024 the Södertälje District Court sentenced him to life in prison and ordered him deported after he serves his time. The court found the murders were carefully planned and "particularly ruthless," and that he had no serious mental disorder. The Svea Court of Appeal upheld the sentence in February 2025.
From a men's prison to a women's prison
Sweden's new legal-sex law took effect on July 1, 2025, and made it easier to change legal sex. In prison, after his conviction, Abdelshahed changed his legal sex and now calls himself "Lily." He then demanded to serve his sentence in a women's prison, Expressen reports.
In autumn 2025 the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) moved him from Tidaholm, a high-security men's prison, to the women's prison in Ystad, Expressen reports.
What the women say
Expressen spoke with six inmates and with prison staff. One inmate described him this way: "Lily is tall, broad and bearded and walks around in a nightgown that's too short, showing his penis, which dangles freely." (Our translation.)
Inmates also describe unwanted touching and attempts to enter the showers and laundry room while women are there. Several say they avoid shared areas, including the showers, which can't be locked. Inmates and staff told Expressen that people who raise these problems risk being labelled anti-LGBTQ.
"No one listens to us," one staff member said.
The allegations have not been proven. Complaints were made to police and to Sweden's Parliamentary Ombudsman. A police investigation into sexual molestation was closed for lack of evidence, Expressen reports. Abdelshahed did not answer Expressen's questions.
The governor of Ystad prison, Anders Jansson, said the prison is generally working well, but admitted staff lack clear guidelines for some situations.
What Swedish law allows
- Sweden's prison law says men and women are normally kept apart.
- The prison service goes by legal sex, not biological sex. So a man who changes his legal sex to female is normally sent to a women's prison.
- But the law already lets the prison service make exceptions "for special reasons." Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer says the law was changed so a new legal sex does not automatically mean a women's prison.
- In this case, the prison service still put him with women.
The political fallout
- Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (Moderates) called the reports "offensive and outrageous." "We can't have a situation where women in prison have to risk being subjected to this kind of violation or harassment," he said.
- Teresa Carvalho, the Social Democrats' justice spokesperson, said the situation "goes against common sense."
- Fredrik Kärrholm (Moderates), who is leading the government's review of the prison law, wants placement based on biological sex. "Women should have an absolute right not to be placed in prison with biological men," he told TV4. His proposals are due shortly after New Year.
- The Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats want the new legal-sex law scrapped. KD's justice spokesperson, Larry Söder, wants the prison service called before Parliament's justice committee: "This is urgent," he told Expressen.
The bottom line
A man who suffocated his two children is now living among women because a form changed his legal sex. The law already let the prison service say no. It didn't.
Cover photos: prison fence, Johan Nilsson / TT News Agency; photos of Abdelshahed, Swedish Police (via Expressen)