Finland is prosecuting a 28-year-old man over alleged sexual offences involving 361 boys, in a case that investigators say may involve around 900 potential victims across the country. Prosecutors allege that the defendant used Snapchat over several years to contact children, obtain sexually explicit material and in some cases secretly record content sent to him.
Pirkanmaa District Court in Tampere opened the trial on Monday with the public presentation of the case. From Tuesday, the main hearings will be held behind closed doors because the proceedings involve children and allegations of sexual offences. The court has allocated roughly 45 hearing days for the case, with proceedings expected to continue until the end of the year. A verdict is anticipated in early 2027.
The defendant faces charges including aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a child and aggravated distribution of an image depicting a child in a sexually offensive manner. Prosecutors say the alleged offences occurred between 2019 and 2022, when the man was aged between 21 and 24.
All 361 identified complainants are boys aged between nine and 15, prosecutors said. They lived in different parts of Finland and, according to the prosecution, were contacted online rather than targeted in a single location.
Police estimate that the defendant may have been in contact with about 900 children. Of those, around 530 people appearing in material recovered during the investigation have not yet been identified.
Prosecutors allege that the defendant approached children on Snapchat while pretending to be a girl. He allegedly used the name Emilia and related usernames when communicating with some of the boys. According to the prosecution, he sent sexual images and videos to the children before asking them to send similar material in return.
The allegations go beyond simply requesting images. Prosecutors say the defendant instructed some children about what should be shown in videos and secretly recorded material sent to him through Snapchat. The children allegedly believed that much of what they shared would disappear because of the application’s messaging features.
Investigators recovered more than 4,200 images and videos linked to identified complainants. Ilta-Sanomat reported that 3,225 of the 4,223 files examined contained sexual material.
The case concerns alleged offences committed online. Prosecutors have not accused the defendant of meeting the children to carry out the acts covered by the current charges.
The investigation has also revealed links between the defendant and some of the children outside social media. Some boys already knew him through sport or through his work as a substitute teacher.
Yle reported that the defendant had played floorball at Finland’s highest league level and had been involved in junior coaching and youth camps. For some complainants, those connections appear to have helped establish familiarity before or alongside the alleged online contact.
Lawyer Jyri Kilpi, who represents 77 of the complainants, told the court that sport was a connection to many of his clients. He said 70 of the children he represents had participated in team sports, while the other seven had friends who had done so.
The defendant did not appear physically in the Tampere courtroom on Monday. He joined the hearing by video link from Kanta-Hame District Court. Images from the proceedings showed him covering much of his face.
His lawyer told the court that the defendant regrets his actions and has largely accepted the prosecution’s account. The defence said roughly 90 percent of the alleged acts have been admitted. The remaining disputes relate to cases where the defendant could not clearly remember details during the police investigation.
The wider investigation began after police seized the defendant’s phone in late 2022 during an unrelated criminal case. Investigators then discovered a large quantity of material involving children, leading to a much broader investigation.
Police spent about two years working to identify children appearing in the recovered files. Investigators interviewed each identified child as well as their guardians as they worked to establish what had happened and determine the scope of the alleged offending.
The defendant had already been convicted in 2023 of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and sentenced to three years in prison. That earlier case involved a 14-year-old pupil he knew through his work as a substitute teacher.
Material discovered during that investigation ultimately led police to the much larger case now before Pirkanmaa District Court. With hundreds of potential victims still unidentified and dozens of hearing days scheduled, the trial is expected to remain before the court for months before a judgment is delivered in 2027.
