Police in Denmark have arrested a priest who kept a huge amount of child pornography on his office computers, saying it was a fascination with forbidden material. The prosecution is asking for at least six months in prison.
A Danish priest who downloaded 80,000 photos and 2,300 films depicting the sexual abuse of children – including on his two office computers – appeared in court on Monday. He said he was doing it because it was like “stamp collecting,” local media reported. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
- A Danish priest was accused of possessing child pornography.
- He had thousands of banned photos and videos on his computers.
- The priest admitted that he was addicted to pornography.
- The prosecution is asking for a minimum of six months in prison.
Sixty-year-old Tom Thygesen Frederiksen admitted to owning these photos and videos during the trial in Naestveda, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported. “I am incredibly sorry for what I have done,” he told the court.
About 700 of these images are considered the most serious because they depict violence or coercion. Police discovered the material during a search of his home in May 2024 following a tip from one of the file-sharing services.
You developed an addiction
Frederiksen testified that he never paid for the material and never felt sexually attracted to children. But he said he developed an addiction to pornography after clicking on a link with “forbidden images”.
“Because it was banned, it had a certain fascination value,” he added. When asked why he downloaded so much material, he said it was “like stamp collecting – just in the wrong way”.
Frederiksen, who previously led pastoral care groups for children, was first suspended and later quit as pastor. The prosecution plans to seek a prison sentence of at least six months, Ritzau reported. The verdict is to be handed down on February 25.
