Finnish court hears case over alleged sexual crimes against 361 boys
In Finland, the Pirkanmaa District Court has begun hearing a case considered the country’s largest set of sexual crimes. The case involves 361 victims — boys aged 9 to 15 from different regions of the country. The 28-year-old man accused in the case faces a number of charges.
As YLE News reports, the alleged crimes took place on Snapchat between 2019 and 2022. According to the prosecution, the man posed as a woman on the messaging platform and asked children to send him photographs and videos. The source notes that there is no information about the man meeting the children in person: the alleged crimes took place online.
Charges and victims
The man is charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a child, and aggravated dissemination of sexual images involving children. The defendant partially admitted to the acts attributed to him.
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During the pre-trial investigation, police estimated the total number of possible victims at up to 900 people. It was not possible to establish the identities of all possible victims. The investigation into the current case began after the suspect’s phone was seized as part of an earlier investigation. Tens of thousands of sexually explicit photographs and videos of children and teenagers were found on the device.
Hearing schedule
According to the court, approximately 45 hearing days are planned in the case, and the proceedings will continue at least until the end of the year. On the first day, the court held a public presentation of the case. Subsequent hearings will be held behind closed doors; YLE News notes that sexual crime cases in Finland are almost always heard without the public present.
In 2023, the Kanta-Häme court sentenced the same man to three years of unconditional imprisonment for aggravated sexual abuse of a child. According to the source, the case at that time concerned sexual contact with a 14-year-old pupil and sending him hundreds of sexually explicit messages, photographs, and videos. At the time of those events, the man worked as a substitute teacher at a primary school.
