As part of Operation Berpaidos, the Guardia Civil has arrested a 54-year-old man in Almeria for committing up to 40 crimes of sexual abuse of minors, prostitution and sexual exploitation of minors, corruption of minors and sexual provocation.
The investigation began in 2020 when the Guardia Civil became aware that a person was contacting, through different social networks, minors to whom he compulsively offered money, gifts and promises in exchange for sexual content.
The agents identify the computer devices used to contact the minors, allowing them to locate the perpetrator. In addition, the identifiers locate more than 40 victims and verify how the perpetrator poses as a young man to trick them in exchange for gifts, money and promises to provide him with pornographic material.
The detainee recruits the minors through different social networks and, posing as a young man of a similar age to the victim, obtains their telephone numbers. Subsequently, and compulsively, he sends messages and videos with sexual content and offers money, phone recharges, sweets and even alcohol and drugs to gain their trust with the aim of having sexual relations or that the minors send him intimate images and videos of a sexual nature.
The proceedings, together with the detainee, are at the disposal of the Juzgado de Instrucción Nº5 of Almería.
The “grooming”, “Chil grooming”, “online grooming” is considered a paedophile deception, in which the adult seeks to create friendship with the minor, so that he/she agrees to his/her insinuations or pretensions. It is a form of grooming, which involves an adult contacting a minor in order to gradually gain their trust and then involve them in sexual activity.
It is a practice in which there are different levels of interaction and danger, from talking about sex and obtaining intimate material to actually having a physical sexual encounter.