Two separate Finnish police departments reported major cases of paedophilia in Finland on Thursday. Two men are under suspicion of having abused dozens of children.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has completed a preliminary investigation into a series of crimes involving a 39-year-old polytechnic researcher in the eastern city of Mikkeli, who has no previous criminal record.
The man is being suspected of the sexual abuse of dozens of young girls. He had sought teenage girls via Internet chat rooms and is accused of having physically sexually abused 13 girls aged under 16 years, and of having had some form of cybersex over the Internet (using webcams) with at least 23 more teens.
The alleged incidents occurred between 2003 and 2006. According to the NBI, the suspect had contact with a total of nearly 100 girls aged 9 to 15 across Finland. On some occasions the man claimed that he was considerably younger than his 39 years.
The suspect has admitted that the purpose of his conduct was to engage in sexual acts.
The man was remanded in custody in September and is now awaiting trial. The case only began to unfold last fall when a family contacted police to report that their 11-year-old daughter had been sexually abused. After police seized the man's computer and telephone, and after the contacts with other girls came to light, a good many families were shocked and surporised to be approached by police officers - they had no idea whatsoever what their kids were doing on the chat channels.
Another paedophile case was reported in Helsinki. A 63-year-old entrepreneur has been remanded in custody and is suspected of paying underage girls to pose for pornographic photos, both in his home and at his business premises.
Currently, the number of alleged victims is five, even though not all young girls posing in the photos have been recognised as yet.
The violent crimes unit of the Helsinki police alone investigated a total of 550 sexual crimes last year. Over 200 of them involved suspected sexual abuse of children or attempted child sexual abuse.
