French paedophile trial hears closing arguments

Defence lawyers have wrapped up two weeks of closing arguments that marked the final testimony in a massive paedophilia trial that has horrified France.

Sixty-five defendants are accused of taking part in a network that allegedly raped and prostituted children in western France. If convicted, the defendants face sentences ranging from three years to life.

Investigators say 45 children between the ages of six months and 14 years were raped and abused by their parents or acquaintances in a working class neighbourhood of Angers from 1999 to 2002 – at times in exchange for small amounts of money, food, alcohol or cigarettes.

At the end of yesterday’s hearing, Judge Eric Marechal asked the defendants if they had anything to add before the jury began deliberation. Two asked their victims for forgiveness, and two others proclaimed their innocence.

Closing arguments by some 50 defence lawyers began on July 4. A verdict was expected as early as the end of the week, after the jury has responded to 1,972 questions related to the 65 accused and their alleged crimes.

Prosecutors urged prison terms of up to 30 years for several of the key defendants. One of them, identified as Eric J, was an alleged organiser that the prosecution described as an “ogre.” He is accused of raping or abusing 15 children.

Defence attorney Laurence Chavoz urged the jury yesterday to see Eric J as the victim of a difficult childhood, comparing him to a boy in the wild raised by a pack of wolves. He asked the court to deliver a penalty that would allow the defendant to hold “a perspective of the future.”

Some of the defendants are accused of raping their own children or grandchildren. More than half of the accused, aged 27 to 73, were unemployed and living off benefits in state-supported housing.

Defence lawyers have said some suspects were illiterate and appeared not to fully understand the charges they faced.

Another, identified as Moise C, allegedly wore a mask to hide his face while raping children. He has been convicted on pedophilia charges twice and is considered one of the most dangerous defendants, prosecutors said.

Victims and suspects cannot be identified by full names because of French laws designed to preserve the anonymity of child victims.

In earlier closing statements, defence lawyer Pascal Rouiller argued that state social workers were to blame for leaving dozens of children vulnerable to the ring of alleged paedophiles.

Rouiller pointed out earlier this month that, of the 23 families involved in the case, 21 had been monitored by French social workers.

“Why is it that all these people, who weren’t left to themselves, slipped through the cracks?” the lawyer asked. ”How is it that nobody saw anything?”