For a couple of weeks now, the Stockholm police's grooming group has been following a typical hunt for a suspected perpetrator.
Details and environments have been changed for privacy reasons.
Grooming is a collective term for several crimes with the common denominator sexual contact with children online.
The perpetrator often wants the child to send nude pictures, pictures that can then be used as extortion in order to force even more daring pictures.
A large part of the reconnaissance takes place at the computer screen, this is where the suspected perpetrators leave traces behind.
The police are secretive about their working methods, but an important tool is the ability to request IP addresses from the international companies behind the apps.
"Hitting the children extremely hard"
- These crimes hit the children extremely hard, says Morgan Neijnes, the group's leader and points to studies that show that grooming victims can have long-term mental problems, problems with schooling and so on.
In a gathering of forces, a group of police officers and investigators who are particularly interested have been put together to streamline the investigation work, which is often complicated and lengthy.
Right now, the group is working on about 160 cases that in many cases may contain a large number of minor crime victims.
In many cases, the children are as young as ten years old.
Currently, the group has 40 identified reasonable suspects who occur with a total of 240 criminal suspicions together.
The ten investigators are full and they say that they could be many more, because the crime is so common.
Preliminary investigation leader Andrea Norell says with a sigh that the risk of a child ever having sexual contact attempts via his phone or computer - is enormous.
- Is it a game or a chat app where there are a lot of children, the perpetrators will be there.
They try to get in touch with as many children as possible.
They can send a dick pic to 200 children and hope that someone will not block them.
Dawn fear against father of small children
News now follows the attack on a father of small children who has been identified after a long search.
At dawn he is taken in for questioning when he is on his way to work.
Then the police ring the doorbell to the apartment where the unsuspecting wife learns that a house search is to be made and phones and computers are seized.
The group is successful and, according to Commissioner Neijnes, almost always succeeds in identifying the perpetrators.
Even if it does not always end with a conviction, the identification itself is important for the child.
To know that it is about a complete stranger.
- They may have walked around and thought it was a neighbor or someone at school, says Morgan Neijnes.
When they receive an explanation, there is something for child and adolescent psychiatry to talk about and process.
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The police's three tips on how you can best protect your child from grooming.
Photo: SVT