ROME – A 48-year-old Italian man has been arrested in Iceland on charges of paedophilia, the Italian state police have confirmed.

 For more than three years the unnamed Italian had been messaging his underage victims on various social media networks and messaging platforms who he then blackmailed to obtain sexually explicit photos.

 There are over 50 victims in Italy alone.

 The victims’ complaints prompted the National Centre for Combating Online Child Pornography, a branch of the cyber security police force, to be called into action.

 The investigators of the Cyber Security Operations Centre of the Bologna cyber security force worked through various names and foreign telephone numbers used by the suspect. Eventually they located and identified the perpetrator as an Italian citizen residing in Iceland.

 Italian and Icelandic authorities coordinated to find and arrest the man.

 The prosecution obtained a European arrest warrant from the judge for preliminary investigations in Bologna, based on the seriousness of the suspect’s crimes including possession of pornographic material produced by the exploitation of minors.

 The suspect was taken into custody by local Icelandic authorities and will be handed over to Italian authorities together with the seized computer equipment.

 khg