A Finnish man accused of sexually abusing 361 children through social media went to trial Monday in what is said to be the largest sexual crime case in Finland.
The man, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed by Finnish authorities, has been described to be in his late 20s. He stands accused of utilizing the social media platform Snapchat to sexually abuse hundreds of children between 2019 and 2022 — many of which remain unidentified by local authorities. The known victims were all Finnish minors between the ages of 9 and 15.
Finnish public broadcaster Yle reports the trial opened at the Pirkanmaa District Court, where the accused faces multiple charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a child, and aggravated distribution of an indecent image of a child. According to the broadcaster, case hearings will last at least until the end of 2026 following Monday’s initial one.
Yle explained that the accused man is suspected of having posed as a woman named “Emilia” to solicit indecent images and videos from his victims over the internet. According to case information reported by Yle, the man, sometimes using the “Emilia” persona, and sometimes as himself, provided instructions to the victims on what should be shown and done in the indecent footage solicited following a method used elsewhere in other abuse cases.
The man is believed to have knowledge that the victims were minors, having either asked them directly, or finding out through other means. According to Finnish prosecutors, the accused man knew some of the victims beforehand, either through sports activities while he worked as a junior Floorball coach or while working as a substitute teacher. While the accused man’s name has not been disclosed, Yle alleged he has played Floorball in the past at Finland’s highest league level, the F-League.
Deputy Judge Jyri Kilpi, who is representing 77 plaintiffs at the case, affirmed to the court on Monday that all responsibility lies with the accused adult perpetrator, not with the victims. The Deputy Judge noted that the victims feel ashamed of the acts, with many of the victims having kept the matter to themselves and not revealed the situation to their parents. Kilpi also reportedly stated that the victims’ parents blamed themselves for the incident for nt having monitored their children’s phone activity.
The accused man was formally charged in early June, having partially admitted to his crimes during a multi-year preliminary investigations conducted by Finland’s Police Department that began in 2022 and concluded in December 2025. The Finnish police recounted that, in 2022, a search of the accused man’s mobile phone device was conducted as part of a separate criminal case investigation.
The search shockingly found a large amount of sexually suggestive material and thousands of images and videos of unidentified children stored in the device. Local police officers conducted a large amount of work to identify the children, locating over 360 of the victims in the next years. The seized device and memory storage containing the offensive material have reportedly been destroyed by local authorities.
The preliminary investigations further alleged there are far more victims than the 361 ones that the man stands accused of sexually abusing.
Per Yle, police officers found the there are approximately 530 more victims that have not been identified yet as of the start of the trial — bringing the total number of victims to over 900.