Sweden's 'Hannibal Lecter' out to sue now he's out of psychiatric detention

The man once considered Scandinavia's worst serial killer but who was later cleared of his crimes said that his lawyer was preparing a claim for damages, following his release after more than 20 years in psychiatric detention.

"What happened was lamentable; we're talking about murder verdicts in eight cases, something that should not happen," he said two days after his release, adding his lawyer had started to work on a claim for damages.

"The Swedish judiciary has been naive ... It's very frightening that I could have been convicted - and of course it raises the question of how many more innocent people have been convicted."

Sture Bergwall, 64, who used the alias Thomas Quick during the 1990s when he confessed to cannibalism and more than 30 murders, was sentenced to life imprisonment for eight of them and held at a psychiatric ward in Saeter in north-central Sweden since 1991.

He was later cleared of all the murders due to a lack of evidence, amid revelations that he had been heavily medicated at the time of the confessions and had made them in return for more drugs.

As a free man, he said he would spend his time walking in the countryside and writing a new book - a follow-up to his 2009 book Thomas Quick is Dead, a phrase he has often used to describe the point where he dropped the pretence of being a psychotic killer.