Boy, 12, taken into compulsory care after attack on five-year-old

A 12-year-old boy is suspected of attempted murder after a five-year-old girl was seriously injured in a park attack in Helsingborg, southern Sweden. The girl was taken to a hospital following the incident at about 3 p.m. on Monday, July 13, 2026. She was able to leave the facilities several days later.

Local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad, working with researchers from Expo, later reported that it had traced a TikTok account containing tributes to school shooters and other mass killers to the boy. According to broadcaster SVT, prosecutor Gustav Friman said the girl suffered stab or cut injuries, while investigators had yet to establish a clear motiv

Account changed over time

The TikTok profile was reportedly connected to an email address belonging to one of the boy’s relatives. It appears to have been created before he turned 10.

According to the paper, its earliest posts featured computer-generated animals and scenes from video games. The content changed in late February, when the account began sharing material celebrating school attackers and other perpetrators of mass killings.

Morgan Finnsiö, a research journalist at Expo, described the True Crime Community, commonly shortened to TCC, as an online environment in which some users develop a fandom around school shooters, terrorists and other mass killers.

The reporting does not establish whether the boy personally created every post or who controlled the profile at different times. Helsingborgs Dagblad reported that activity on the account stopped after the municipal social welfare board formally approved the boy’s compulsory care.

Care outside prosecution

Social services reportedly took the boy into emergency care within hours of the attack. The municipal social welfare board later made a formal decision under the Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act, known in Sweden as LVU.

Guidance from Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare says emergency care may be ordered when a child requires immediate protection, subject to later legal review. LVU is a child-welfare measure, not a criminal punishment.

At 12, the boy is below Sweden’s minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 15. The incident can still be investigated, but measures involving him are handled through child-welfare procedures rather than an ordinary criminal prosecution.

Police have not identified a motive or said the TikTok material was connected to the attack. It also remains unclear who controlled the account and whether the two children knew one another beforehand.

Sources: SVT, Helsingborgs Dagblad

This article is made and published by Kenneth Glad, who may have used AI in the preparation