Verdicts due in paedophilia trial
A court will deliver its verdict today in a massive child sex trial that has shocked France.
Sixty-five defendants – including relatives and acquaintances of some of the victims – are charged with molesting, raping and prostituting infants and young children.
Prosecutors said 45 children aged between six months and 14 were raped and abused by their parents, grandparents or acquaintances in a working-class neighbourhood of Angers, western France, from 1999 to 2002 – at times in exchange for small amounts of money, food, alcohol or cigarettes.
The trial began in March, horrifying the nation as graphic details of the abuse emerged in weeks of testimony from the accused and scores of witnesses.
“The children cried and shouted,” one defendant, identified only as Cathie H, had tearfully testified as she described how she and others took part in the assaults on groups of children.
Defence lawyers had argued that some suspects were illiterate and appeared not to fully understand the charges they faced.
More than half of the accused, aged between 27 and 73, were unemployed and living on benefits in state-supported housing. The victims and suspects could not be identified by full names because of French laws designed to preserve the anonymity of child victims.
The nine-strong jury deliberated for a week, the time it took to make their way through 1,972 questions related to the 65 accused and their alleged crimes.
The defendants include 39 men and 26 women. Three of them face life imprisonment as repeat offenders, and 36 others face up to 20 to 30 years.
One of the defendants, Eric J, an alleged organiser of the ring, was described by the prosecution as an “ogre”. He was accused of raping or abusing 15 children, and prosecutors recommended he spend 30 years behind bars.
Another, identified as Moise C, allegedly wore a mask to hide his face while raping children. He has been convicted on paedophilia charges twice and was considered one of the most dangerous defendants, prosecutors said.
“He needed to watch paedophile cassettes just to fall asleep,” Yvan Auriel, one of two prosecutors in the case, said earlier this month.
Prosecutors have also recommended a 20-year sentence for Didier R, another suspected organiser of the ring.
Pascal Rouiller, a lawyer who represented defendant Franck V, accused of raping three of his children, had argued that social workers were to blame for leaving dozens of children vulnerable to the ring that preyed on them.
Much of the alleged abuse occurred in Franck V’s flat in a public housing project in Angers, 165 miles south west of Paris known for its medieval castle and Cointreau liqueur.
The trial showed that three generations of a single family, like that of Franck V, 36, were sometimes involved in the abuse, with the latest generation, the youngest, the victims. His wife, Patricia, was also charged.
A grandfather of some of the children allegedly filmed rapes and other abuse.
The case surfaced in 2000, when a 16-year-old girl said she had been raped by her mother’s boyfriend and his brother.
Three couples at the heart of the case lured their children and those of their friends, relatives and neighbours by saying they were going to “play doctor”, according to the prosecution’s 420-page legal filing charges. One girl was allegedly raped 45 times.
