A 14-year old teen in Norway is suspected of raping a girl of the same age, police said, adding that the suspect filmed the assault on his phone and then sent the disturbing video to his friends. The victim is reportedly the suspect’s schoolmate.
The incident took place in Grenland district, Telemark County in southern Norway last week, as reported on Friday by the local Varden newspaper, which initially broke the story.
“The boy is suspected of rape and for spreading material of a sexual nature involving children,” police attorney Torunn Fossli Sæthre confirmed to Norway’s media. It was the girl’s parents who reported the case to police, according to broadcaster NRK.
Officers found a video on the boy’s smartphone, allegedly showing a sexual assault of a girl. The identity of the victim is not clearly seen in the recording. The same footage was found on a second phone belonging to a different person.
Both the victim and the suspect were attending the same school, according to Telemarksavisa newspaper. The alleged rape took place at the girl's residence, not at the school, the paper said, adding that the suspect must have sent the video of the abuse to several schoolmates.
“We don’t know how many people it [the video] has been sent to, but take the fact this happened very seriously. This makes the assault and the crime much worse,” Fossli Sæthre added. The suspect is currently in a youth detention facility in Telemark county.
Norway’s Child Welfare Services (Barnevernet) has taken the case as the suspect is under the minimum criminal age of 15 in Norway. “Police are now further investigating the case in order to find out what happened. What will then happen to the boy is the responsibility of Barnevernet. The accused is a child,” Fossli Sæthre told NRK.