Angers France
" And yet in the prosecution's case there is the testimony of a teacher who noticed that a little girl was masturbating in class repeatedly throughout the year."
FRANCE'S BIGGEST EVER TRIAL OPENS WITH 66 ACCUSED OF CHILD SEX
Received Sunday, 27 February 2005 02:36:00 GMT
http://www.ttc.org/200502270236.j1r2a7c20485.htm
ANGERS, France, Feb 27 (AFP) - The biggest ever criminal trial in modern French history opens this week in the central town of Angers, when a total of 66 men and women face charges for the rape and sexual abuse of children as young as a few months old.
All the judicial records look set to be beaten when the four months of hearings start on Thursday in a specially constructed wooden hall in the town's Palais de Justice. More than 60 lawyers will be taking part, and the 430-page prosecution case will take four clerks three days to read out.
Also attending will be many of the 45 victims of the alleged ring, whose stories are so painful that jury members will have access to a special psychiatric team.
"In this trial the sordid contends with the odious," said Marc Desert, state prosecutor in the case. According to defence lawyer Pascal Rouiller, "some of those who were abused were babies incapable of walking -- still less of making the slightest complaint!"
The testimony -- which will be followed by a verdict in June -- will be closely followed by a horrified nation, but doubts have already been raised over whether in so monumental a mass trial justice can really be done to each individual.
Comparisons have also been drawn to one of the most notorious judicial fiascos of recent times -- the so-called Outreau paedophile trial in northern France last year in which 13 people were implicated by the evidence of a woman who later admitted in court that she was lying.
Many of the accused languished for four years in prison -- and one committed suicide -- before being brought to trial in that affair, which also exposed the shortcomings of relying solely on the evidence of the alleged child victims.
Prosecutors in the Angers case are confident the mistakes of Outreau will not be repeated -- they point out that more than half of the 66 accused have admitted their guilt -- but defence lawyers are expected to make full use of the precedent.
"Of course we will exploit Outreau. It would be a professional fault not to," one said.
Details of the allegations against the 39 men and 27 women make appalling reading. All come from the poorest and least educated sections of society, and lived in the Saint-Leonard quarter of what is in the main a pleasant and leafy historic town.
"It was a bit like a slab of plastic explosive. Most of the people involved would have stayed inert were it not for the detonator -- in other words the three or four people who made the whole thing explode," said lawyer Alain Fouquet.
Investigators were alerted to the network when they decided to keep tabs on Eric Joubert, a former convicted sex offender released in 1999 who was supposed to be undergoing a course of psychiatry. He and another former offender Franck Vergondy were the founder members of the club of perversion.
According to the prosecution, between 1999 and 2001 nearly 50 children were raped or abused -- though the overall number could be much higher. The most sickening evidence concerns the way parents allegedly bartered their own children for pathetic sums of money, food parcels and cartons of cigarettes.
"Parents of one kid sold her for a new car-tyre. That is the atrocious level of barbarity that we've reached," said Philippe Cosnard, a lawyer representing a child protection group at the trial. Another girl of 10 was raped by more than 30 adults.
Most of the abuse took place in the Vergondy apartment, but also in sheds by garden allotments on the outside of Angers and in caravans. Locals said they were aware of a constant traffic of "voiturettes" -- cheap electric cars that need no licence -- but no one ever made a comment.
Indeed the failure of anyone -- including the social services -- to spot what was going on is one of the scandals of the affair. Many of the families were known to social workers, but no peculiar behaviour was ever reported.
"And yet in the prosecution's case there is the testimony of a teacher who noticed that a little girl was masturbating in class repeatedly throughout the year. Why was this never passed on?," said Pascal Rouillier, a lawyer for five of the accused.
For many in France the other shocking element is the number of women involved. Of the 39 accused who are behind bars, 13 are female. "It is ridiculous to suppose that women cannot be paedophiles," said Monika Pasquini, another lawyer.
"But are the French ready to accept this transformation of their image of the soft maternal woman into a harpy capable of raping and selling children -- even her own? That's another question," she said.
Three of the accused face life in prison if they are convicted, and the others lesser terms ranging from three to 20 years.
66 accused of pedophilia
From correspondents in Angers
March 03, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12435785-23109,00.html
FRANCE's biggest criminal trial in modern history opens with 66 men and women facing charges for the rape and sexual abuse of children as young as a few months old.
The case is being held in a specially constructed wooden hall in the law courts in Angers, western France, and is expected to take four months to be heard.
More than 60 lawyers will be involved, and the 430-page prosecution case will take four clerks three days to read out.
Also attending will be many of the 45 victims of the alleged ring, whose stories are so painful that jury members will have access to a special psychiatric team.
Details of the allegations against the 39 men and 27 women make appalling reading.
All come from the poorest and least educated sections of society, and lived in the Saint-Leonard quarter of Angers, a largely pleasant and leafy historic town.
Investigators were alerted to the network when they decided to keep tabs on Eric Joubert, a former convicted sex offender released in 1999 who was supposed to be undergoing a course of psychiatry.
He and another former offender, Franck Vergondy, are alleged to have founded the ring.
According to the prosecution, between 1999 and 2001 nearly 50 children were raped or abused - though the overall number could be much higher.
The prosecution has gathered evidence to show that parents bartered their own children for small sums of money, food parcels and cartons of cigarettes.
One girl of 10 was allegedly raped by more than 30 adults.
Most of the abuse took place in Mr Vergondy's apartment, prosecutors say, but also in sheds by garden allotments on the outside of Angers and in caravans.
Locals said they were aware of a constant traffic of "voiturettes" - cheap electric cars that need no licence - but no one ever made a comment.
For many in France, one of the shocking elements in the case is the number of women involved. Of the 39 accused who are in custody, 13 are women.
Three of the defendants face life in prison if they are convicted, and the others lesser terms ranging from three to 20 years.
Amid all the horror generated by the facts surrounding the trial is a note of caution created by a previous pedophile trial in northern France last year.
That case, called the Outreau trial, saw 13 people implicated of abusing children on the basis of one woman's evidence and some corroborating statements from alleged victims.
But the woman later admitted in court she had lied, and the children's testimony was found to be unreliable.
Nevertheless, many of the accused in that case languished in prison for four years, and one committed suicide, before the truth finally came out in court.
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