The physical education teacher that SVT Nyheter has reviewed is suspected of serious child pornography offences, offensive photography and sexual harassment of a total of over 100 girls.
But there were alarms about the man already over ten years ago. And when the police cracked down on the man, they found tens of thousands of images of child abuse.
Mia Carlén works at the police unit at Barnahus Stockholm, which takes in children who have been exposed to, among other things, sexual abuse.
– People with this disposition find themselves where there are children. You need to take warning signals seriously, dare to ask questions and act if something doesn’t feel right, she says.
Hear Mia Carlén about the warning signals in the clip above.
According to the Crime Prevention Council’s statistics, several sexual crimes against children are at high levels, including rape against children, exploitation of children for sexual posing and child pornography crimes.
Increase in child pornography offences
The number of reported child pornography offenses has exploded in a year. From 2,884 reported child pornography crimes in 2022 to 15,896 reported crimes last year.
One explanation is a national effort to follow up on tips that came to the Swedish police from the American organization National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC.
– We gathered forces around low-priority tips and distributed all these cases to the regions. I am quite sure that the statistical curve will go down with the same drama as it went up, says Björn Sellström, process manager at the police’s National Operative Department, Noa.