The preliminary investigation into the suspected online pedophile has been ongoing since the beginning of January 2018 and the hearing in the district court is expected to last several months - up to six months, according to the prosecutor.

- In terms of the number of litigants, this is one of the bigger cases we have had in Sweden, says Marina Charikova, prosecutor at the City Prosecutor's Office in Stockholm.

The man, a nearly 40-year-old man from Stockholm, has been detained for more than 1.5 years on suspicion of a series of crimes against children online, including sexual offenses, gross exploitation of children for sexual posing and rape.

All crimes must have occurred online. According to the man's lawyer, he denies all charges.

Focused on girls between 8 and 10

More than 80 children, all under the age of 15, are the target owners - and above all, the man should have targeted girls.

At what points the suspect will be charged, the prosecutor does not yet say.

The man has three times previously for similar crime. The last time, 2017, to jail.

According to that judgment, he contacted children through popular apps for children. In chat conversations, they pretended to be much younger and then got girls, sometimes under threat and pressure, to perform sexual acts on themselves and document the abuse.

The prosecution is expected this fall

In that case there were 25 offended girls - in the upcoming prosecution the number of defendants is significantly more. And several of them should be resident in Skåne, according to a source.

The prosecutor plans to bring charges this fall.

- It will be at the earliest in late September and by the end of October at the latest, unless something arises that will require the investigation to take longer, says Marina Charikova,

The children themselves are expected to commit the abuse

New research indicates that children who are exposed to sexual offenses over the internet feel just as bad, if not worse, than children exposed online.

Maria Dufva is a criminologist and expert on crime against children online. Children who are subjected to sexual offenses often place the blame on themselves, according to her. Photo: Private

Criminologist Maria Dufva, who is an expert on crime against children online, sees several explanations.

- The children themselves carried out the abuse in their rooms. They have been able to film and send the material. They blame themselves. And so the children know, because the perpetrators say so, that the images remain forever. And that is traumatizing in itself, she says.