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As seizures of child pornography increase, the police and prosecutors have developed a new method of investigation. Perpetrators can now be convicted of large amounts of material that has not been manually examined. – It is almost difficult to explain how big the material can be, says researcher Louise Åhlén.
As seizures of child pornography increase, the police and prosecutors have developed a new method of analyzing the material. Detective Inspector Louise Åhlén is an investigator in the Internet-related sexual crimes against children unit in the National Police Operational Department (NOA).
Over a decade, the 41-year-old had accumulated large amounts of child pornographic material and when the police raided his apartment in Södertälje municipality just over a year ago, more than 2.8 million files of abusive material were found in multiple storage units.
– As far as I know, this is the largest seizure of child pornographic material that we have had in Noa, says Detective Louise Åhlén, who for eight years has worked as an investigator in the unit for Internet-related sex crimes against children in the department national police operation (Noa).
When the man was sentenced in early September to four years in prison for a felony child pornography offense, the Svea Court of Appeal wrote in its ruling that the possession is probably “the greatest in Swedish legal history”.
However, the rise in seizures is a general trend, says Louise Åhlén.
– It is hardly possible to compare even annually. Because an incredible amount happens in just one year. It is a very flexible offense. Nowadays it is extremely easy to acquire material. You don’t have to be a genius to do that. What you need is capacity, says Louise Åhlén.
Along with another ruling by the Court of Appeal this summer, the Södertälje case may change the evidentiary requirements in child pornography offenses. In mid-August, the Göta Court of Appeal sentenced a 45-year-old man from the Kalmar area to five years in prison for a felony child pornography offense.
Both cases have in common that the police investigators have not examined all the material, but that a large part has been analyzed. In the past, investigators had to manually examine all material for it to be included in a prosecution against an alleged perpetrator.
– In our case, we examined about 1.3 million files and we have never examined so much before. We analyze the second part. The finger exam took at least six months and then we went to various researchers. Two researchers and I did the analysis in about two weeks, says Louise Åhlén.
More efficient investigative methods are imperative in light of today’s large seizures, says Lisa Hannerfors, who was the prosecutor in the case at hand.
– If you have to examine each file separately when you have millions of files, there are very long investigation times, which also means very long detention times for the suspect, says Hannerfors.
The methods of analysis in the two cases differ somewhat, but both largely won a court hearing, and the men could also be convicted for material that the investigators did not refine. Noah is now working to create a uniform method and disseminate it to investigators in the seven police regions of the country.
– We want to try to get investigators to present this as a proposal to prosecutors, who are of course sovereign in handling their preliminary investigation, says Louise Åhlén.
In the Kalmar case, it was estimated that around 1.9 million files consisted of documented sexual abuse of minors and this was something that the Court of Appeal found proven. On the other hand, Chamber Prosecutor Emelie Källfelt was not heard because about 40 percent of the material should be considered rude.
– There we can continue testing. We must continue daring to prosecute and rehearse analysis. Only by trying can we get an answer to what the courts consider good analysis and what is sufficient, says Källfelt.
The children’s rights organization Ecpat Sweden welcomes more effective investigation methods, but emphasizes that all material must be scrutinized to save children from abuse.
– In the material, there may be unfamiliar images and films of children that can be identified and taken out of ongoing abusive situations, says Isabella Kim, a child rights lawyer at Ecpat Sweden.
When a child pornography seizure occurs, the first step for investigators is to review the material to see if the alleged perpetrators have committed their own abuse. There is also international collaboration with, for example, the FBI and Interpol to identify children.
– Identification is the most important thing in cases like this, says Louise Åhlén.
TT: Isn’t there a risk of missing children when seizures increase?
– That is the great disadvantage of this: it is clear that we can miss children.
The perpetrators are often one step ahead and much of the material is shared, for example, on the dark web, which is an encrypted part of the Internet that cannot be accessed through the usual search engines.
– Anything that allows us to be anonymous makes it difficult for us to find material, says Louise Åhlén.
TT: What is it really like to sit and research that material?
– We certainly belong to a crude part of the police authority, but probably many of us feel that it is important to be able to participate and solve cases like this, says Louise Åhlén.
She says that as a researcher, you look at images in a different way than ordinary people would have. The horrific abuse is recorded, but the focus may be on an electrical outlet to determine which country the child is in.
– You have a different objective with where you look at the image or the film, but it is clear that it also affects us, says Louise Åhlén.
The investigations
Two men, aged 41 and 45, were sentenced this summer to four and five years in prison respectively for a felony of child pornography. The two cases have in common that the men were convicted in the Svea Court of Appeal and the Göta Court of Appeal, respectively, for material that had not been examined by the police investigator.
Fine tuning (categorization) means that a researcher looks at each image or movie manually and determines if it is a certain type of abusive material.
In current cases, researchers have analyzed a large part of the material.
In the case against the 41-year-old man, where about three million files were included in the indictment, all films were examined.
Of the image material, both a fine examination and an analysis were carried out on the plain text. For example, some 100,000 images were examined that were of a particularly ruthless nature. Of the roughly 1.3 million images analyzed, the prosecutor and police investigator did not estimate how many of them are particularly vicious.
The case against the 45-year-old man involved more than two million data files and about four percent of them were examined with the fingers. The rest of the material was subjected, among other things, to an analysis with the help of a computer program and manual random checks were also carried out.
It was estimated that around 1.9 million files were of child pornographic material and that around 40 percent were of raw material.
Sources: Noah, Public Ministry, judgments of the Court of Appeals and district courts.
