Eastern Uusimaa District Court has sentenced a man to 11 years and three months in prison after finding him guilty of aggravated sexual assaults of six girls who were between 13-16 years of age at the time of the offences.

Two of the victims were wards of the state and another of the victims was mildly or moderately developmentally disabled when the crimes took place.

The man carried out the offences during 2019-2021 in the municipalities of Tuusula, Hamina, Lahti and Nokia.

The 40-year-old defendant faced a total of 14 sexual assault offences, including aggravated rape of a child, four counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a child and the purchase of sexual acts from a young person.

In addition to the prison term, the defendant was ordered to pay his victims around 70,300 euros, the victims' court costs amounting to 23,200 euros, as well as his own attorney's costs of 19,500 euros.

Verdict sealed

Court records and verdict of the case have mostly been sealed, but a public report said the defendant first contacted the victims through social media. The man encouraged the victims to send him photos and video of sexual acts and had provided some of the youngsters with sex devices that were seen being used in some of the pictures. The man also offered some of the victims money or alcohol as rewards for carrying out the acts, according to the report.

The defendant lured four of the victims in order to commit sexual and other offences against them. The girls met with the man in his car, apartment as well as a hotel, among other places.

Some of the sexual acts committed against the children featured sadomasochistic traits, and the man had secretly video recorded the meetings without permission from his victims.

The photo and video material that he had shot, as well as the photographs and video footage taken by the girls, were found on his cell phone and a memory stick. A large amount of other sexually demoralising material was also found in his possession, according to the public report.