A 24-year-old Norwegian man has been sentenced to prison for three years and eights months for his role in the huge pedophile network that police uncovered after a lengthy investigation. He already faced charges of sexually assaulting several minors and is among the 51 men charged so far in the case police call “Dark Room.”
Newspaper Bergens Tidende reported that the sentence was two months less than prosecutors had requested. It was the police investigation into the 24-year-old’s alleged assaults, one of them reported by the mother of a victim, that led police to uncover what’s believed to be the largest pedophile networks in Norwegian history.
When police went through computer files seized from the 24-year-old when he was arrested last year, they discovered large amounts of material depicting assaults against children. They also found chat logs that showed he had contact with others in the same networks. He had, for example, had an online discussion with a 29-year-old engineer about how they could assault a child together. Another man wrote about how he had assaulted his own children.
The defendant now convicted and sentenced also was in possession of more than 2,300 photos and 191 videos depicting assaults on children. One of the assaults took place in the locker room of a swimming complex in the Bergen area.
Police continue to investigate the networks as the case expands. Calls have risen for those convicted of assaults against children to be held in prison longer and be subject to forvaring, a special form of custody that can keep convicts in prison indefinitely. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that several of the men charged in the current investigation have been convicted of assault on earlier occasions.
newsinenglish.no staff
