Stalker again targets former ABBA member

Apr 6, 2006, 12:24 GMT

Stockholm - A Swedish court has slapped a restraining order on a former boyfriend of ex-ABBA group member Agnetha Faltskog, Stockholm newspaper Expressen reported Thursday.

The former boyfriend, identified as 40-year-old Dutch national Gert van der Graaf, is reportedly obsessed with the publicity-shy singer, who turned 56 on Wednesday.

Neighbours on Tuesday spotted van der Graaf near Faltskog's home in Ekero, west of Stockholm, and alerted police.

During a court hearing, van der Graf said he had just wanted to speak to Faltskog for five minutes and tell her that she had nothing to fear from him, Expressen said.

Prosecutor Henrik Soderman presented van der Graf with a new restraining order, and said that if it is violated the Dutch national will be held in remand.

At the end of the 1990s, van der Graaf and Faltskog had an affair that lasted two years. After they broke up he became obsessed with her and repeatedly was seen on the grounds of her large mansion.

In 2003 he was arrested when he tried to break into her house and was sentenced. A court had previously ordered that he should be expelled and issued a restraining order.

The ban against his entry to Sweden expired last summer.

Faltskog has for years avoided the limelight, but in 2004 released the album My Colouring Book.