By Hilary White
MALMO, Sweden, October 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 34 year-old man in southern Sweden, who had been convicted of rape and child pornography charges after he filmed himself having sex with a 14 year-old girl, has been awarded 157,000 kronor, the equivalent of Cn $24,170, in compensation for wrongful conviction.
The Local, an English language newspaper from Sweden, reports that the man, who was not named, was convicted by a district court but had the conviction of rape overturned on appeal. The Swedish age for sexual consent is 15 and the man claimed not to have been aware of the girl’s age when he had sex with her. He admitted to having used the internet to lure the girl in.
The man had originally asked for 282,000 kronor in compensation for “suffering and lost wages.”
The conviction for child pornography, however, for which he received a suspended sentence, was not overturned,
Child protection groups in Europe and elsewhere are growing increasingly alarmed at the use of the internet to lure in children and adolescents for sexual exploitation by adults. In a speech in 2007, Interpol Secretary General, Ronald K. Noble, said the internet is a threat to children “via chat-rooms where grown-ups engage in conversations with them in an attempt to ‘groom’ or get them ‘ready’ for subsequent sexual conduct … or by facilitating meetings where physical abuse could occur.”
“The internet,” he said, “permits child predators and paedophiles to view, purchase, sell or exchange images, films or videos depicting the explicit sexual abuse of children.”
In 2005, a UN committee on the Rights of the Child found that Sweden’s “National Plan of Action” on child abuse and sexual exploitation was not adequately protecting children.
The committee expressed its “concerns” about reports of cases of sexually abused children as a result of contacts via the Internet. The committee also noted incidents of trafficking in children, prostitution and related issues in Sweden and abroad committed by Swedish citizens and said that Swedish legislation provided “little protection”, due in part to the “subjective and incomplete definition of the child” under the Penal Code concerning child pornography.