Alleged pedophile evading justice caught in Italy

TALLINN - Jaanus Konsa, a former Estonian state official and convicted pedophile who had been evading justice, was apprehended in Italy at the end of June, Elu24 reported.

Konsa, former advisor to the chancellor of justice, was supposed to appear in court in August 2024. He is accused of producing and distributing child pornography and sexually enticing a minor.

However, Konsa did not show up for the hearings at Harju County Court. At the time, neither the judge nor the prosecutor knew his whereabouts.

In late September, the police declared Konsa a wanted person. In late March, Barbara Luts, a spokesperson for the Police and Border Guard Board, said that according to the latest information, Konsa was hiding abroad, and an international warrant for his arrest had been issued.

Monika Mägi, a commissioner at the criminal bureau of the North Prefecture of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board, now confirmed to Elu24 that Konsa was apprehended in Italy on June 30 thanks to international cooperation and is currently in custody in Estonia.

Prosecutors in Estonia accuse Konsa of making and distributing child pornography and sexually enticing a child. According to the charges, the accused wrote and distributed several texts describing the rape of minors. In addition, he downloaded and forwarded photos depicting minors having sexual intercourse.

In the course of the pre-trial investigation, it was also established that the accused was trying to find a sexual partner who was underage via the Snapchat communication app. The accused presented himself as a 14-year-old boy and deliberately tempted the interlocutor to engage in sexual intercourse.

However, none of the minors met the accused, so there were no direct victims of the accused's actions.

In 2017, Konsa was convicted of several pedophile offenses and sentenced to four years imprisonment, which was reduced by a third due to an abridged procedure. His final sentence was two years and two months imprisonment. However, he only had to serve half of that time in prison, the remainder being suspended for five years.

According to the charges, from 2011 to 2016, Konsa kept about 300 photo and video files depicting minors in erotic or pornographic situations on various media at his residence. He also persuaded minors to pose for himself in pornographic situations in front of a webcam via internet portals.

In addition, Konsa was accused of committing an act of a sexual nature against a boy under the age of 14 in 2015.