Man suspected of online abuse of underage girls

The Espoo police are investigating widespread sexual abuse of children, reported national broadcaster Yle.

Max Bock, the detective chief inspector from Espoo police told Yle that a 30-year old man from Espoo is suspected of sexually abusing children online.

The victims are estimated to number about 40 underage children from different parts of the country.

"Social media does not recognize geographic boundaries of towns so the victims are from across Finland," Bock said.

The victims are all girls, and the youngest is about 10-years old.

Bock said that at this stage it seems from the pre-trial investigation that no physical interaction or face-to-face with the victims had taken place.

According to the police, the man approached the girls via social media platforms.

Bock said that social networking service Instagram was commonly used. According to Bock, debate of sexual nature as well as exchange of picture and video had taken place.

The police arrested the suspect in March, and the pre-trial trial investigation has established that the offences took place in 2018 and early 2019.

The news was first reported by Finnish language tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.