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PAEDOPHILE

Paedophile site probed for privacy violations

A new website set up by a Swede with ties to neo-Nazi groups and featuring the names and contact information of dozens of convicted child sex offenders has been reported for data privacy violations.

The site, stoppa-pedofilerna.se (‘Stop the paedophiles’), allows users to perform geographic searches and includes the names, contact information, personal identity numbers (personnummer), and court rulings of those convicted of child sex crimes and child pornography offences.

Offenders listed on the site can have their information removed by undergoing “chemical castration”.

The man behind the site claims he simply wants Sweden to toughen its laws against paedophiles.

“In very extreme cases, we advocate life in psychiatric care,” the man behind the site told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Jonas Agnvall, an attorney with Sweden’s Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen), said the agency has received numerous complaints about the site since it was launched two weeks ago.

According to Sweden’s data protection laws, it is “prohibited for anyone other than a public agency to handle personal information about violations of the law which include crimes”.

Violating the data protection laws can result in up to two years in prison.

Agnvall explained, however, that the agency has yet to conduct a thorough investigation of stoppa-pedofilerna.se.

The Data Inspection Board has previously reported three similar sites to police in recent years, but investigations into two of those sites have since been dropped.

The man behind the site claimed that children are “safer” in the United States because many communities there have publicly available sex offender registers.

Until recently, he was a known member of the neo-Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen) but has since joined the Förbundet nationell ungdom (‘National youth association’), which has the goal of “taking back” Sweden.

According to Aftonbladet, he spent two months in prison in 2009 for vandalism and making illegal threats against immigrants.

Daniel Poohl, editor of Expo, a magazine which tracks the extreme right in Sweden, said that the Förbundet nationell ungdom is also a part of a network of extreme right-wing groups in the country.

He explained that groups on the extreme right have long advocated tougher laws for child sex offenders in Sweden.

“It’s part of their tough stance on crime and punishment,” he told The Local.

According to Poohl, the groups hope their “get tough” views on paedophiles will help them win new supporters.

“Interestingly enough, it’s one of the few areas where they are colour blind. They don’t care if the offenders are white or dark skinned,” said Poohl.

“Usually, these groups only draw attention to crimes involving immigrants.”

Nevertheless, Poohl expressed doubts as to whether the strategy of trying to target paedophiles would yield results.

“At first people may not realize it’s an extreme right-wing group handing out a flyer [tougher sex crime laws], but once they start questioning democracy, most people lose interest,” he said.

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ABUSE

Catholic church in Valais rocked by new sex abuse claims

Accusations of historic sexual abuse have been made against around ten Catholic priests in the bishopric of Sion in the canton of Valais.

Catholic church in Valais rocked by new sex abuse claims
Photo: lightpoet/Depositphotos

The bishop of Sion, Jean-Marie Lovey, has asked the victims for forgiveness, the Swiss news agency SDA reported, quoting Radio Rhône FM.

It said the abuse of children and young people happened between the 1950s and 1990s, and all the cases were now too old for a prosecution to take place.

The paedophile priests were identified after some ten victims went to the diocese of Sion with abuse allegations last year.

Three of the accused clergymen are still alive.

One of the victims told the radio the numbers of reported abuse cases did not correspond to the reality.

He said he had met around 50 other victims in Valais, many of whom did not want to talk about what they had experienced.

The man accused the church of a cover-up, saying previous bishops had known about the sexual abuse but had done nothing except move some priests to other parishes.

But Bishop Lovey, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2014, denied there had been an attempt to cover up the abuse.

He said priests were moved to other parishes as a preventive measure.

Between 2010 and 2016, around 220 victims informed the Swiss church authorities of abuse by ordained clergy between 1950 and 1990, SDA said.

The latest cases in Valais will be included in the church’s statistics for 2017, which have not yet been published.

In February 2017 the Swiss Bishops Conference set up a commission charged with awarding compensation to victims of historic sex abuse by Swiss priests.

The leading church authority announced it had created a 500,000 franc reparations fund to pay compensation to victims who no longer have the right to seek redress in court since the statute of limitations has passed.