Zurich cantonal police arrest internet paedophile
Published: Wednesday, Nov 15th 2023, 10:50
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A 39-year-old Swiss man has been in custody in the canton of Zurich since September: he is alleged to have coerced minors on the internet to produce sex images of themselves.
Between 2017 and 2022, the man allegedly used various social media platforms to persuade numerous minors and young adults of both male and female genders to send him nude photos of themselves under false pretenses, as the Zurich cantonal police and the public prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday.
The arrested man then allegedly threatened the victims that he would publish these images on the internet if they did not send him further images produced in accordance with his explicit instructions. According to the police, in several cases the first nude images were then published in the vicinity of the minors and young adults as threatened.
Affected persons from Germany and abroad
As far as is known at present, this sextortion case affects numerous people living in Switzerland and abroad who were minors at the time of the crime, according to the police and public prosecutor's office.
A complaint and several reports from the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the USA triggered the investigation. They led to the arrest of the 39-year-old Swiss national in the canton of Zurich.
According to the press release, paedocrime on the internet is growing in scale worldwide. This is shown, among other things, by the many NCMEC reports in connection with criminal content and depictions of abuse; in the current year alone, around 200 reports relating to the canton of Zurich have been received.
The Zurich cantonal police have come across many "sexual offenses with and against children in virtual space" this year: Thanks in part to secret surveillance measures, 16 online offenders have been identified and arrested in 29 cases so far.
©Keystone/SDA
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