In December , it transpired that adult migrant men were grooming [1] i. One victim ended up committing suicide. Police warned young girls and parents, while emphasizing that "not all people with foreign backgrounds are dishonest or criminals.
In Finland, cabinet members broke the otherwise normal Finnish taboo about commenting about ongoing criminal investigations. The initial police report, on 1 December, was about a gang of seven foreign men who had been grooming a girl. It caused a shock among many Finns. These just happened at the same time. By 6 December, Oulu police had ten men under arrest for sex and violent crimes.
The victims were now three girls, all under 15 years of age. By 11 January , police disclosed one of the rape victims had committed suicide months earlier. The number of victims had risen to nine. The number of men in police custody was now twelve. All suspects were foreigners.
By 16 January the suspects numbered 16, and remained all-foreign born. Police disclosed that at least one the girls was drugged before being raped. The crimes were said to have taken place in the summer and fall On 11 February it was reported that police have started to investigate new suspected rapes of two underage girls that had occurred a few days earlier at a private home.
One of the girls is under 16 and the other under One suspect is in custody. The suspect has a foreign background and a Finnish residence permit. The victim is a year-old girl, and the rape took place in a private apartment in January. By late February, the police had expanded its investigation and reporting to include not just grooming cases in Oulu, but also "milder acts, such as assaults. One of the grooming gang suspects escaped to Germany and may have gone to France. He was arrested in Germany in , but was let go.
