France: Eleven have paedophilia convictions upheld

An appeals court today acquitted one of a dozen people convicted in France’s largest paedophilia trial but maintained the convictions and harsh prison sentences for two of the leaders.

The court handed down prison terms of three to 28 years after the lengthy appeal which lasted more than two months.

The 12 were among 61 people convicted two years ago in a trial that stunned the nation.

The case involved the abuse and rape of up to 45 children aged six months to 14 years by parents, grandparents, or acquaintances in nearby Angers, in western France, from 1999 to 2002.

More than half the accused were unemployed.

A repeat offender known as Eric J, who was sentenced to 28 years behind bars in the original verdict in July 2005, received the same sentence on appeal.

Another leader in the ring, identified as Jean-Marc J, received a 26-year-term, as he did in the first trial.

French law forbids divulging the full names of some defendants in paedophilia trials to protect the identities of underage victims.

The prosecution portrayed the defendants as part of an “encounter of three families marked by generational incest, with a preference for paedophilia".