Contribution to sexual abuse of children over the Internet – particularly on entrapment

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

Over a period of six years, a man had contributed to aggravated sexual assault against children from Romania, the Philippines and other places. 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 assaults were filmed and transferred to his computer, tablet or similar. The Supreme Court, having heard the case jointly with HR-2020-2136-A, found with reference to the judgment in the other case that he could not be convicted of contribution to human trafficking under section 257 of the Penal Code. During the investigation, the police had used so-called entrapment. By using the defendant's identities online, they had accessed chat logs that he had had with a contact, and they had also received offers of new assaults. The Supreme Court's majority of four justices found that the police's communication with the contacts could serve as evidence. The evidence had not been unlawfully procured, and there were no other violations of basic procedural principles implying that it could not be used. The total penalty, which was for violations of section 301 cf. section 299 cf. section 15, section 301 cf. section 299 cf. section 16 cf. section 15, section 303 cf. section 302 cf. section 312 cf. section 15, the corresponding provisions in the Penal Code 1902 and some other offences, was 16 years of imprisonment. It was emphasised that the assaults were part of a pattern. A deduction of one year was given for lengthy proceedings. Like in HR-2020-2136-A, the deduction for time spent in custody on remand was increased due to a number of illegal strip searches, see section 83 of the Penal Code. Here, too, the deduction was increased by one day per two such searches, see section 83 of the Penal Code. 

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