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Man receives 2.5-year jail sentence in second Oulu child sex abuse case

The 22-year old perpetrator met his 14-year old victim via the social media app Snapchat.

Ulkomaalaistaustainen tuomittu mies ja tulkki.
Abdullhadi Barhum conceals face in Oulu District Court. Image: Timo Nykyri / Yle
  • Yle News

Oulu District Court sentenced 22-year-old Abdullhadi Barhum to two-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of rape and aggravated sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old girl.

Barhum and his underage victim did not know each other before the offences took place last autumn in Oulu, on Finland's west coast.

According to court testimony, the victim had asked for someone on the social media app Snapchat to bring her cigarettes and that Barhum responded to her request.

According to testimony, Barhum later provided the girl with alcohol and had been aware the girl was 14-years-old.

He met his victim two times in Oulu's Tuira neighbourhood and the rape took place outdoors during their second meeting last November.

Second case

That same weekend another suspected child sex abuse case came to the attention of authorities, but the incidents were not related and the suspects did not know each other, according to police.

Last week a 44-year-old man was sentenced to a three-year eight-month prison term after being found guilty of the aggravated child sexual abuse and aggravated rape of a 10-year-old girl. Those offences were found to have occurred between summer and autumn last year.

Tuesday's verdict was the second of several cases of suspected child sex abuse under investigation in Oulu that came to light late last year.

In some of those suspected cases the perpetrators had known their victims in advance of the alleged offences, while in other cases contact had been established via the internet and social media. According to investigators the suspects in those cases include Finnish nationals as well as foreigners.