First sex purchase court case ends in acquittal in Salo

Customer found under bed at Syvälampi motel - "didn't know pimping was involved"

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Salo District Court handed down an acquittal on Wednesday in Finland's first criminal case involving allegations of purchasing sex services from a victim of pimping.
      Legislation came into force in October last year making it a crime to buy sex services from a victim of pimping or human trafficking. The law is a modified version of a bill which in its original form would have made it illegal to pay for sex in any way.
      The first charges under the new legislation were filed against a 60-year-old man from the southwest of Finland. He had been a customer at the Motel Syvälampi in December last year when police raided the premises.
      A police officer who testified at the trial said that he had gone through all of the rooms in the hotel. He walked into a room in which there was a foreign woman.
      He then heard sounds from under the bed in the room. He knocked on the bed, after which the man who was later charged crawled out.
      The defendant said in court that he had gone to the motel for a cup of coffee out of sheer curiosity. He had known that there were prostitutes working at the motel, and he said that he had merely helped one of them carry food items into her room. He denied having any intention to pay for sex.
      The man said that when he looked out of the window of the room he had seen the light from a flashlight and heard loud noises, after which he hid under the bed.
     
The court felt that it was obvious that the defendant had intended to pay for sex, because he had admitted as much before changing his story on the witness stand.
      The court also felt that it was clear that the woman was the victim of pimping.
      However, the court did not feel that it could be proved that the man knew that the prostitute was the victim of a pimp.
      The court noted that the bar was untidy, and that it had a limited selection of drinks on sale. There was one employee behind the counter, and prostitutes as well as male customers in the lounge area. However, both of these factors could point to either pimping or plain prostitution with no middlemen.
      Furthermore, no outsiders were involved in the business transaction between the defendant and the woman.
     
Meanwhile, the court found 49-year-old Jan-Erik Strömberg to be the main culprit behind the operation at the Motel Syvälampi. He was given an eight-month prison sentence for aggravated procurement, as well as irregularities in bookkeeping and notations in official registers in 2005 and 2006.
      Five men were given suspended sentences or fines for pimping as well as violations of bookkeeping regulations.
      Strömberg had already been sentenced to two years in prison in January by Riihimäki District Court for procurement and economic crimes in Syvälampi and in the Motel Bonanza in Riihimäki from 1999 to 2004.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police to exclude buyers from investigation into prostitution ring (10.1.2006)
  Amended prostitution bill likely to pass (9.6.2006)
  Dispute over criminalisation of buying sex to be settled today (8.6.2006)
  Criminalisation of buying sex does not scare away regular clients (7.4.2006)
  Estonia also considering criminalisation of purchase of sex (9.1.2006)
  Purchase of sex services could soon lead to imprisonment (16.12.2005)
  Police in Salo change course on brothel investigation (15.1.2007)

Links:
  SALLI - United Sex Professionals of Finland

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