The man looks around on the solitary platform after leaving the train in Örnsköldsvik, a late Thursday evening in mid -May 2024.
“Where are you?” He asks in the chat with the one he just got in touch with via a dating app.
“Starting to wonder if you really want to come,” he gets an answer and is referred to an area a stone’s throw away.
But the one he chats with turns out to be someone completely different.
Without understanding what is going to happen, he is escorted down a 19 meter long staircase by two men, who only a few days earlier should have applied for membership in PHS, Pedo Hunting Sweden. A citizen guard that lurks, confronts, abuses and humiliates people who are alleged to be pedophiles.
Suddenly, a third man shows up at the subway under the railway.
Then it slams. First some fist blows. Then kicks.
The man screams and cries. The violence continues as he falls down on the ground.
And everything is caught on film.
A movie that quickly gets more than a thousand likes in social media and is divided by over a hundred users.
“You are warmly welcomed as members,” writes a person whom the police point out as a central player within PHS the day after the serious act.
A month later, an blurry mobile image is taken showing how four young men hold their arms around each other’s shoulders. It is midsummer weekend and they are not yet suspected of involvement in the serious act of violence in Örnsköldsvik. The abused man has not made any police report or visited a hospital.
At the same time, the gang of friends is suspected of continuing their illegal activities in various constellations. Among other things, one of them must have tried to meet and abuse more people.
At the end of August 2025 he writes in a chat group:
“I have two, maybe three, disgust that I booked a meeting with. Is one of you the desire to knock a little? Had one that I just meet, but he ran worse than Usain Bolt”.
In the autumn of 2025 – just over a year after the serious abuse at the Travel Center in Örnsköldsvik – the police strike against the group of friends. Everyone except the 17-year-old is still detained.
“It has been difficult to get hold of the plaintiffs, who are accused of being a sexual offenses against children,” says prosecutor Ida Annerstedt, who leads the preliminary investigation.
– It is very stigmatizing and they have not wanted to make themselves known in the first position. There we have put quite large resources to identify them.
She says that three events in the investigation have been linked to the motive to harm people that the PHS members suspect are pedophiles.
Were the victims in these cases convicted of sex crimes against children?
– No, they are not convicted sexual offenses.
When the suspects are detained and the police begin to collect evidence from their phones, an unexpected discovery is made, which causes the investigation to take a new direction.
“I want to organize myself to get rid of these fucking disgusting pedophiles from the street, have jobs but time is there and commitment is absolute. Will be able to contribute with the reduction of the pedophiles and disgusting people around Sweden”.
So one of the men writes in his application to become a member of Pedo Hunting Sweden in May 2024, according to police who suspect he was the most driving in contact with PHS among friends in Örnsköldsvik.
When he six months After his application, assignments as a craftsman at a school is secretly suspected of filming three naked girls in a shower room. The police believe that they are unaware of being filmed.
According to time reports and testimonies, the man at the school worked on the day and the films appear to have been created from his mobile phone, but he definitely disrupts the allegations of abusive photography and child pornography offenses.
– Bullshit, he answers the police question about the incident and explains that he got the films in a group on social media, saved them down because they were “completely ill” and then deleted them immediately.
On Thursday he is placed And the other four men to trial. All of them deny the crimes they are charged with.
But this case is far from the only thing with the motive to damage suspected pedophiles, DN’s survey shows.
Since last year, at least twenty people have been convicted of a crime with connection to Pedo Hunting Sweden, including in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Umeå and Östersund.
– It is a loosely composed group that is basically found throughout the country. Some regions cover up larger areas, says Elias Fransson, Internet recipient at the Police Regional IT Crime Center RC3.
DN has taken part in a police memorandum about Pedo Hunting Sweden, which shows that members are divided into regional groupings to simplify confrontation and exposure to victims. Each region also receives different levels of priority, which determine which areas should be prioritized when it comes to the first step in the organization’s approach – fishing.
– There are people with fake accounts that attract alleged pedophiles via various platforms on the internet to decide a meeting, says Elias Fransson.
But just as in Örnsköldsvik, someone else meets up for a physical confrontation.
– In the majority of cases, it is about younger men or teenage guys who confront and abuse this person.
Younger girls also occur, especially when it comes to the role of fishermen, he explains.
– We see above all people who want to fight and then you are looking for a context where it is more or less tolerated.
He says the police Among other things, links to supporter goals in sports such as football and ice hockey, three of the now accused men in Örnsköldsvik are also known by the supporter police for this.
In addition, several members are double -organized in both PHS and right -wing extremist Aktivlubb Sweden, according to the newspaper Expo, which has also found references to violent right -wing extremism in PHS communication.
Elias Fransson at the police also highlights the role of social media in PH’s operations.
– We saw a trend in early 2024. That’s when it started to flare up, not only about confrontations but also that they started talking about it much more, he says.
In a short time, the organization has received about 40,000 followers on Instagram, which acts as a kind of shop window where PHS can create opinion and recruit new members.
The films with violent crimes against the suspected pedophiles, on the other hand, are posted on more anonymous and light shaded platforms that do not moderate the content as hard. There, PHS has about 15,000 followers in a private account.
And the case in Örnsköldsvik shows that the business continues.
In the trial that starts on Thursday, Prosecutor Ida Annerstedt will argue that it is about serious organized crime, which can give a harsher punishment in the event of any conviction.
– What I know is the first time it happens when it comes to Pedo Hunting Sweden.
