Substitute Teacher Suspected of Multiple Child Rapes in Gävle

A man in his 30s, who worked as an unqualified teacher in primary schools, is now in custody suspected of multiple child rapes.

The man has worked intermittently for several years within the municipal primary schools in Gävle, both on hourly and monthly contracts.

He is suspected of committing several child rapes over social media.

Last autumn, the police launched an investigation after he appeared in police internet tracking. In mid-September, he was arrested and detained. However, there was not enough evidence to keep him in custody, and he was released.

Suspended from Work

The school was informed, and at the end of September, he was suspended from his job until the contract expired.

Meanwhile, the police investigation continued, and the suspect is now in custody for nine different cases of child rape, several cases of exploiting children for sexual posing, and child pornography offenses.

The detention request states that the crimes are believed to have been committed between 2023 and 2024. According to prosecutor Mattias Vilhelmsson, the victims are between 9 and 14 years old. None of the identified victims have any connection to the school where he worked.

A total of six plaintiffs are currently registered with the district court.

"We are now conducting interviews and analyzing large amounts of digital traces," says prosecutor Mattias Vilhelmsson.

He does not rule out the possibility of finding more victims.

"If a new plaintiff emerges, we will of course try to identify that person," he says.

Application: Raised with a Sense of "Right and Wrong"

The man applied for his first job in the school sector just over ten years ago. In his application, he wrote that he "always enjoyed being around children."

"You learn new things by interacting with children, which I find very fun," he continued, claiming he was raised with a sense of "right and wrong."

Only last week were parents at the school where the man last worked informed of the suspicions, after Gefle Dagblad interviewed the municipality's school director, Sara Marklund.

In the email, quoted by the newspaper, the school director writes that she "unfortunately can confirm" that the man written about in the media worked at the school where the parents have their children.

"I can confirm that from the time we became aware of the police report in early September 2024, the person has not been in the operation until the employment ended at the turn of the year 2024/2025," writes Sara Marklund in the letter to the guardians, according to Gefle Dagblad.

She also writes that no victim attends the school where the man worked.