A 46-year-old man from Bergen has been sentenced in Hordaland District Court to 13.5 years in prison for assaulting over 40 children. The verdict is in line with the prosecutor’s claim. The man is also sentenced to confiscation of a large number of technical equipment. In addition, he must pay NOK 5,925,000 in compensation to 28 offended boys. On the other hand, he is exempted from the claim for reparation compensation against six of the offended boys. Pretended to be an underage girl The man is said to have been posing as a young girl on the chat services Omegle and Skype for several years. He did this with the help of a visual software and stolen clips of an underage girl. This is how he tricked young boys into performing sexual acts with themselves and with other children, in front of the camera. He then shared the videos on the dark web. It was BT who mentioned the judgment first. 45 hard drives and 80 storage units. In the judgment, it is stated that the man is sentenced to endure confiscation of a number of technical equipment that has been used for filming and sharing the abuse material. This is the equipment to be confiscated: Nine telephones Seven computers 45 hard drives Seven cameras 80 memory sticks, memory cards and floppy disks 598 CDs and DVDs A USB Hub The man’s defenders Kim Brügger Villanger and Agnieszka Bulat. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen / news “Insight through a keyhole” When the trial started in Hordaland District Court, the man from Bergen pleaded guilty to the rape of four young boys and abuse of over 40 children. The police have feared large numbers and that the scope could be up to 1,000 children. In the judgment, it is emphasized that the man has refused to provide the passwords on a number of hard drives and other storage devices secured with strongly encrypted passwords. Kripos has tried 500 million password combinations to try to unlock them, without success. Furthermore, it says that “the police have gained insight through a keyhole – where you can only guess what is on the other side”. The sentence was initially assessed by the prosecutor at 16 years, but a reduction was given because the man confessed. The prosecutor in the case is First State Attorney Eirik Stolt-Nielsen. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen / news The 46-year-old has said that he started downloading abuse material in the late 90s and made his own abuse films from 2012. He has explained that he did not start sharing the abuse material until 2019. The man was also charged for having filmed children and adults with a hidden camera at a water park in Bergen over a period of 12 years. Sometimes the man was exposed on the various chat services. The court admitted that in such cases he has threatened to make children public. Revealed by Kripos It was police investigators at Bryn, at Kripos’ section for internet-related abuse, who exposed the man. The case was then named Operation Krypt. The man from Bergen was arrested in mid-2020, and has been in custody since then. The man has been on the police’s radar since he was arrested for the first time in 2002. In 2006, he was sentenced to 45 days’ probation for possessing child abuse material. In 2013, the police confiscated PCs and hard drives from him. The trial took place in Hordaland district court at the end of April. Photo: Simon Skjelvik Brandseth / news
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