33 new Dark Room cases – at least 300 children grossly abused in total
At least 300 children have been exposed to gross sexual assault that Norwegians have ordered and viewed over the internet. The Dark Room complex now encompasses 84 cases.
– Several of the assaults appear to be torture, the West Police District reports in an update of the pedophile- and assault investigation entitled Operation Dark Room.
The investigation now includes the whole country. All twelve police districts have one or more Dark Room-affiliated items on their table.
Some of them talk about dozens of cases involving sexual abuse of children, possession and proliferation of images and films showing offenses against children and, not least, a large number of cases of direct streaming of ordered abuse.
The case began to unravel in January 2016, when the police found a couple of thousand assault images and a few hundred video files on a computer at home of a man from Aalesund. Through analysis of the contents of the machine, the police found the persons the man had shared- and received content from.
Since that time, the police have either created or investigated 84 cases pertaining to sexual abuse of children.
Just since last update last November, 33 new cases have been filed – 13 of them belong to the West Police District, while 20 cases have been sent to other police districts.
Orders abuse online
Western Police District, with assistance from the Criminal Police, has revealed a large amount of abuse that has been directly streamed on the web through webcams. The victims in the cases are children, right down to infancy, which repeatedly are exposed to very gross assaults.
The police have found at least 300 children who are subjected to this type of abuse.
Live streamed happening among others from the Philippines. The violations shown are ordered in the smallest detail by Norwegian network users.
– We see that orders and the execution of such abuses have been in progress for several years.
Many of the affected children in these cases live in poverty and are without close care persons. They are cynically exploited by Western men, writes West Police District.
In the direct streaming cases, the police believe that hundreds of adults facilitate or carry out the sexual assaults ordered.
Travel guide for pedophiles
Among materials that the investigation has revealed, are recipes on how to book online abuse. Also how to buy prostituted children in Cambodia and Nepal which assaults can be performed against.
Two documents released by investigators appear as detailed travel guides, with recommendations on where to gain access to children.
They include how to behave to get offers to commit abuse, and how to pay for them.
The documents are apparently written by people who have been in the various places themselves and who seem to be very experienced when dealing with child prostitutes.
– Boys and girls can be found in all age groups, but the younger ones are not advertised as openly. This to prevent trouble with the law, the author writes.
The experience exchanges, as the police call them, are done in different discussion forums online.
Another example from the investigation is a brief excerpt from a chat. In the chat a Norwegian man orders a six-year-old girl to be subjected to abuse:
– What do you want to do with her? asks the provider in the Philippines.
47 cases sent to other districts
Altogether, 47 cases originating in Dark Room are sent elsewhere by the police district. Two of them are sent to Denmark and Sweden.
All of the country’s twelve police districts are now investigating one or more cases that are affiliated with, or is a result of, the investigation in Bergen.
– Several of the police districts in Norway have now set up their own projects on abuse cases against children online. In several of the cases, we see that several of the same users are involved, says the update from the West Police District.
Western Police District Prosecution has settled six cases; three cases are settled through confessions. There are indictment decisions in two cases and one case is settled with fines.
In one of the cases where an action has been taken, physical sexual abuse applies to own children.
The other cases relate to abuse material through chat and / or image sharing. In addition, five cases have been investigated, but are not yet concluded.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
