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A man is on trial in Sweden charged with a novel crime: raping girls in Canada and two other foreign countries entirely over the internet, with no physical contact between him and the alleged victims.

Experts here call it a unique prosecution, one that challenges the definition of sexual assault and underscores how global connectivity has led to previously unheard-of crimes.

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Bjorn Samstrom, a 41-year-old man from near Uppsala allegedly threatened to kill the girls he met over social networks or post photos of them on pornography sites, unless they performed sexual acts, including bestiality, in front of webcams as he watched.

The 41-year-old man from near Uppsala, Sweden, is charged with “gross rape” and other offences related to 27 victims in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

It’s only the sexual predator’s imagination that sets the limits. The technology knows no limits

Among them were one girl each in Ontario and Alberta, both aged 13 when they were victimized in late 2015, said Annika Wennerström, one of the prosecutors involved in the case.