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CRIME

Copenhagen man tricked young girls into sex

A 49-year-old family man was charged on Thursday with 15 sexual assaults against teenaged girls and a whole 41 girls have been called to testify against him.

Published: 1 October 2015 12:48 CEST
Copenhagen man tricked young girls into sex
The suspect reportedly lured young girls with the promise of a modeling job. Photo: Hillary/Flickr
Copenhagen Police said that a 49-year-old man will face charges of rape, indecent exposure and unlawful coercion for a series of sexual assaults on teenagers that he lured over the internet. 
 
A police spokesman told Ritzau that the man has been in custody since July but the case has been kept secret so as to not interfere with an ongoing investigation. The case could extend far further than the 15 counts. 
 
“We have identified 41 girls who will testify in the case,” Commissioner Hans Erik Raben told Ritzau. 
 
Raben said that the man lured 13 and 14-year-old girls by offering them modelling jobs. The girls were contacted over social media, but police didn’t elaborate on which sites were used. 
 
Raben told TV2 News that the case points to the importance of parents keeping an eye on their children’s web usage. 
 
“It is a case like this that makes one say to parents yet another time that they should be aware of paedophilia online. I encourage all parents to take a peak over their kids’ shoulders when they are on the internet,” he said. 

CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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