Contribution to sexual abuse of children over the Internet - the limit towards human trafficking

Justices: Indreberg, Kallerud, Arntzen, Falch, Høgetveit Berg

Over a period of five and a half years, a man had contributed to aggravated sexual assault against around 200 Philippian children. He had paid the childrens' care persons to commit the acts while he was watching via the Internet. He also gave instructions on how he wanted the assaults carried out. The Supreme Court's majority of four justices found, like the Court of Appeal, that he could not be convicted under section 257, cf. section 258, of the Penal Code for contribution to aggravated human trafficking. He had not functioned as a ringleader, and according to preparatory works and case law, it is the ringleader role – possibly in combination with own abuse – that the provision is intended to cover. The penalty for a number of aggravated sexual assaults involving intercourse against children under the age of 14, see section 299 cf. section 300 cf. section 301 of the Penal Code, aggravated sexual assaults against children under the age of 14, see section 299 cf. section 301 of the Penal Code, attempted aggravated sexual assault against children under the age of 14, see section 299 cf. section 301 cf. section 16 of the Penal Code and a number of other acts, was 21 years of imprisonment. In doubt, the Court found that there was no basis for preventive detention. During his time in custody, the man had been subjected to a large number of intrusive strip searches contrary to Article 93 subsection 2 of the Constitution and Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court decided to compensate this by increasing the deduction for time spent in custody on remand by one day per two illegal strip searches. Partial dissent 4-1.

Read the whole judgment (Norwegian only)