Former Danish Minister of Industry Henrik Sass Larsen was sentenced to four months of imprisonment on Monday for possession of thousands of pictures of children’s sexual abuse. According to AFP, TASR writes about it.
Henrik Sass Larsen confessed that he had more than 6000 photos and 2000 videos showing sexual abuse of children on his computer. As part of the defense, he claimed that this material was available to try to find out who abused it when he was a child. Larsen was in foster care as a child for some time, later he was adopted.
Judicial decision and the next steps
Prosecutor Maria Cingari said on the margo of Larsen’s proceedings that “no one should be possessed by child pornography, regardless of the reason.” At the same time, she regretted that someone like Larsen, who “managed to get the most out of his life, despite the bad start, finds himself in such a situation”.
During the trial, the 59-year-old exminister said that in 2018 he received a link to video 50 years ago, which captures it as a three-year-old during sexual abuse. In 2020 he received another video, which was raped in his presence a three -year -old girl – he himself had about the same age. He said that both videos disappeared after watching them.
The exminister was determined to find them and identify the perpetrators, and got to a very controversial website.
The court said he regretted that he did not contact the police after receiving the videos.
AFP added that Sass Larsen was also accused of possessing a sexual doll with the form of a child, which he said he received as a gift for online purchases from China. The court did not recognize him at this point as guilty.
The ex -minister’s lawyer Berit Ernst said before journalists that they would consider the judgment and see “whether it will be the definitive end or we will appeal”.
In 2013-15, Sass Larsen worked as Minister of Industry, since 1999 he was a member of Parliament. The scandal rolled over last March and led to his exclusion from the Social Democratic Party.
