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Danish ex-minister gets prison sentence in child abuse images case

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AFP/Ritzau/The Local - news@thelocal.dk
Danish ex-minister gets prison sentence in child abuse images case
Former Danish minister Henrik Sass Larsen at parliament in 2015. Larsen has been given a four-month prison sentence for possessing images of child sexual abuse. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix
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Former government minister Henrik Sass Larsen was on Monday sentenced to four months in prison for possession of thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

Larsen, once a senior Social Democrat who served as industry minister in 2013-2015, admitted he had more than 6,000 photographs and 2,000 videos on his computer depicting sexual abuse of children.

But he denied the charges against him, saying the reason he had the material was to try to find out who had abused him when he was a child.

"He was looking for material of himself as a child," his lawyer Berit Ernst told news agency AFP prior to the court verdict at Copenhagen City Court on Monday.

During his trial, the 59-year-old told the court he had received a link in 2018 to a 50-year-old video showing him being sexually abused when he was three years old.

He testified that he received another video clip in 2020, in which a three-year-old girl was raped in his presence when he was around the same age.

The two videos disappeared after he viewed them, he said.

But he was determined to find them to identify the perpetrators, a search which led him to some of the darkest sites on the internet, he claimed.

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He told the court he regretted not having contacted police when he received the videos.

Speaking to AFP, his lawyer said "the big question is whether he is punishable for being in possession of this kind of material even if it was to look for information about himself". 

In court, Ernst argued that the law was not intended to cover the situation described by Sass Larsen. This argument was rejected by the court.

Sass Larsen was also accused of being in possession of a child sex doll, photos of which were shown in court. He was found not guilty on this charge.

He testified that he did not buy it but he received it as a free gift with an online purchase from China.

Police did not confiscate the doll when they searched Larsen's house during investigations, and the ex-minister later disposed of it. As a result, it could not be forensically or otherwise further examined, meaning the court could not prove it was acquired for a sexual purpose.

The scandal came to light in March and led to his expulsion from the Social Democratic party.

At the time, Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expressed her shock over the case.

Sass Larsen's lawyer said her client "was eager for this all to be over with". Following sentencing on Monday, she confirmed to news wire Ritzau that he was considering whether to appeal the verdict to a higher court. There is a two-week deadline for this decision to be made.

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Anonymous
Not child porn. Images of the abuse of children
  • Michael Barrett Michael Barrett The Local Editor
    Thank you, the headline has been corrected.

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