A 31-year-old man is on trial in Halmstad for a series of sexual crimes against children, according to official sources. The indictment includes allegations of rape against four victims, with one case involving a girl named Lisa, who was 14 years old when she met the man. Lisa and her friends were in Halmstad to party, and a friend knew a guy who usually offers alcohol and drugs, leading to an invitation to his home. Later in the evening, her friends disappeared from the apartment, leaving Lisa alone with the man, who allegedly started touching her. Lisa became very scared and pretended to be passed out so the man would leave her alone, but he allegedly continued despite her pretending.
The 31-year-old man denies the crime, and his lawyer does not want to participate in any interview, according to official sources. Lisa is a fictitious name, and her voice is replaced with an AI voice for protection. Lisa managed to call her mother before he allegedly attacked her, leading to panic as her mother, Anna, struggled to locate her daughter.
In a separate case in Karlskrona, a 14-year-old girl was invited to an apartment in December last year by a man she thought was the same age, according to official sources. In reality, he was in his 20s, and the apartment was not his but his brother's, who was traveling abroad. The two had talked for a while on social media, with the man stating he lived in Gothenburg but recently moved to Karlskrona. When the 14-year-old arrived, she noticed something was not right, and according to the indictment, the man allegedly had sex with her against her will and took a stranglehold on her during the meeting. The accused man admits in police interrogation that he had sex with the girl but denies the crime, claiming he thought she was older, and he has been in custody since the incident.
In Karlstad, a 34-year-old man was sentenced to prison in July 2021 for rapes and serious sexual abuse against 37 girls over the internet, with the girls aged between 11 and 17, according to official sources. On Maundy Thursday, almost five years after the extensive sentence, the man was arrested again suspected of two new cases of rape of children and exploitation of children for sexual posing. Both incidents allegedly occurred in northern Värmland in winter 2026, and the man denies the accusations.
In Finland, a 20-year-old man from Tampere is accused in the Pirkanmaa District Court of dozens of crimes against children, primarily sexual offenses, according to major media reports. According to the prosecutor, the man obtained nude photos from children aged 10–14 on TikTok and Telegram by threatening them, with the most serious charge being rape of a child, which carries a minimum sentence of two years in prison. The alleged crimes occurred in 2024 and 2025 in Tampere and Nokia, and the trial began on Tuesday, expected to last about 15 days. There are at least 32 victims in the case, all aged 10–14 at the time of the offenses, and the man has been in custody since August 2025, arriving in court escorted by police.
Mental Helse calls the actions cynical.
The man contacted victims via TikTok and Telegram apps, eventually meeting three victims in person in a Tampere apartment building basement, according to major media reports. According to the charges, the man raped one of the children, with several dozen charges including 28 counts of sexual abuse of a child being the most common. The man in his 20s has admitted to some of the acts, and the prosecutor stated he preyed on children born between 2009–2012 on various social media platforms. He asked children to send photos of their bodies, saying he used them for masturbation, with photos of abdominal muscles being particularly significant, and obtained photos partly by pressuring and threatening violence, leading to 18 charges of unlawful threats. The man sent photos of himself or masturbation videos to some children and offered hundreds of euros for photos, with two children receiving cash when meeting in person.
In Norway, a man from Bergen systematically used Mental Helse's forum to contact several young girls since summer 2024, according to major media reports. To gain access and build trust, the man allegedly created profiles posing as a peer-aged girl, then moved the girls to platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, where communication turned to emotional blackmail and severe threats to force them to send sexualized material. The man was arrested in January last year, spending six weeks in custody, and police uncovered seven victimized girls from different parts of the country, some under 14. The public prosecutor in West filed a comprehensive indictment, with the case scheduled for four days in Hordaland District Court in August, and the man is also charged with sexually offensive behavior, allegedly posting public messages on Snapchat seeking girls he could send money to in exchange for pictures. The maximum penalty for the most serious offense under Penal Code 299 is ten years in prison, and Mental Helse made changes to the forum after the incident, including removing private messaging and introducing an age limit.
In Trøndelag, a man is charged with having acted in a harassing or inconsiderate manner towards a woman, according to major media reports. According to the indictment, the man via the internet encouraged the woman to starve herself until she weighed 36 kilos, take drugs, and self-harm by cutting over about one and a half years. Both were in their late teens during this period, and the man allegedly encouraged her to carve his name into her skin and send pictures of it. He is also charged with sharing several sexualized pictures and nude photos of the woman on the internet over about five months, and must appear in Trøndelag District Court in May, with one day set aside for the trial.
Additional cases include a resident of Jämtland County in his 20s suspected of a series of sexual crimes against about 20 children, who has been arrested, with around a hundred chats reconstructed from his phone remaining to be analyzed, according to major sources. The extensive criminal investigation involves suspicions of one case of rape of a child, four cases of sexual abuse of a child, child pornography offenses, and seven cases of exploitation of a child for sexual posing. A resident of Jönköping is suspected of having urged a 12-year-old girl to send videos of herself performing sexual acts and is now facing trial for several sexual crimes against children, including rape of a child.
In Halmstad, a man impersonated a 16-year-old on social media to groom young girls, with the youngest being 9 years old, and is suspected of offering girls alcohol and drugs and committing sexual assaults when they were unconscious, according to official sources. The trial against this man and an accomplice is concluding in Halmstad District Court, with the 31-year-old man suspected of exploiting four girls, the youngest being 9, and another 30-year-old man suspected of child pornography offenses and failure to report aggravated rape of a child. Lisa, 14, was lured to a party by the 31-year-old and reported suspected assaults, and according to police, there may be more victims who have not reported the man.
Parents should consider risks when their children are on social media and talk to them about these risks, according to official sources. The exact number of victims across all cases remains unclear, as some sources mention unreported victims or ongoing analysis of chats. Trial outcomes and sentences for the accused individuals have not been determined, and the effectiveness of measures taken by platforms like Mental Helse to prevent similar incidents is unknown. Coordination or patterns between the different cases across Sweden, Finland, and Norway have not been fully established.