The man was charged with requesting thirteen girls aged between the ages of 11 and 15 to send him naked pictures of themselves taken on their web cameras, regular cameras or mobile phones.

According to the public prosecutor, the man used deeply sexual language when writing to the girls, explained to them that they made him very aroused. In a number of cases, including that of an 11-year-old girl from Umeå, he sent them pictures of his own penis.

A 13-year-old girl from Gothenburg was in contact with the accused several times a week over a four month period. The man is alleged to have induced her to masturbate in front of a webcam while he watched.

The suspect, who has been held in custody since September, denied committing any offence. He claimed instead to have acted as a sort of private sex counsellor for the girls with whom he was in contact.