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SEXUAL ABUSE

No charges despite new child porn law

A year after the introduction of a new law banning the viewing of child porn, not a single charge has been filed with police admitting that they can't actively look for transgressors, according to a report in daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

No charges despite new child porn law

“We only discover this if we confiscate a computer on suspicion of another crime,” said Björn Sellström, head of the child porn unit at the national police (Rikskriminalen) to DN.

To download or own pornographic images or footage of children has been a crime in Sweden since 1999 and since July last year it has also been illegal to look at child porn, for example on internet sites.

But so far, no one has been charged with the crime.

According to the police this is because they can’t scan the net randomly to find these people. The discovery would have to occur in connection to another crime.

Also, Sellström told DN the law isn’t clear on how much child porn a person must have viewed on the internet for charges to be filed.

He also thinks that the courts aren’t aware of the nature of the material when they evaluate the crime.

“They don’t see the viewing of this material as sexual abuse but as possession,” he said to DN.

But according to Mari-Ann Roos of the department of justice the changes in legislation have served their purpose.

She told the paper that the aim of the change in legislation was to close up holes and make sure that any action concerning child porn was a punishable offence.

“It is of less concern to us whether or not the police are able to take measure against the perpetrators,” she told DN.

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CATHOLIC CHURCH

At least 3,000 paedophiles active in French church since 1950: report

Thousands of paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of an independent commission investigating the scandal told AFP, days ahead of the release of its report.

French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards.
French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards. Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP

The commission’s research had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other members of the church, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it was “a minimum estimate”.

The commission’s report is due to be released on Tuesday after two and a half years of research based on church, court and police archives, as well as interviews with witnesses.

The report, which Sauve said runs to 2,500 pages, will attempt to quantify both the number of offenders and the number of victims.

It will also look into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the Church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals.

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The independent commission was set up in 2018 by the French Catholic Church in response to a number of scandals that shook the Church in France and worldwide.

Its formation also came after Pope Francis passed a landmark measure obliging those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors.

Made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians, its brief was to investigate allegations of child sex abuse by clerics dating back to the 1950s.

When it began its work it called for witness statements and set up a telephone hotline, then reported receiving thousands of messages in the months that followed.

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