Jean-Claude Arnault Convicted of Rape After His Sexual Assault Allegations Threw Swedish Academy Into Disarray

A Swedish court has convicted Jean-Claude Arnault of rape, months after sexual assault and harassment allegations surrounding the French photographer and husband of a woman who sits on the Swedish Academy, rocked the Academy and led to no one getting the Nobel Prize in Literature this year.

The judge said there was “sufficient evidence, consisting mainly of statements during the trial by the injured party and several witnesses” to convict Arnault, according to the Guardian.

The case came about after 18 women came forward with accusations of sexual assault or sexual harassment by Arnault in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter last year. Of those, eight filed formal complaints, according to the Guardian, and of those eight, almost all were dropped because of lack of evidence or because the statute of limitations ran out.

Except one, which charged Arnault of forcing a woman to engage in oral sex and intercourse in October 2011, and of raping her months later in December in her sleep.

The Swedish Academy was highly criticized after the Dagens Nyheter report in November of last year and another report that the Academy had heard about oe alleged assault in 1996 and ignored it. Arnault is married to Katarina Frostenson, who is a member of the Academy.

The New York Times reports that Arnault’s lawyer called the allegations a “witch hunt” and said they would be appealing the court’s decision. Arnault is sentenced to two years in prison; the maximum for rape in Sweden in six.