France on Thursday charged the founder of an adult website used to commit sexual crimes, including A French man who hired dozens of foreigners to forced his wife who was very sadprosecutors said.
Isaac Steidl, the founder and manager of the website Coco.fr, was charged with crimes including managing an online platform to conduct illegal business with an organized gang, after to be held on Tuesday.
The French authorities shut down the anonymous platform in June 2024.
They say the site was used for a number of sexual crimes such as pedophilia and rape, as well as murder.
They also said it was possible Dominique Pelicot to hire dozens of strangers to rape his grieving wife from 2011 to 2020. Pelicot was given a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while his accomplice was sentenced to between three and 15 years complain
Pelicot spoke to potential attackers on the website's chat room called “A son insu” (unbeknownst to them). He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December after a trial in which his ex-wife turned himself in Gisele Pelicot in the image of femininity.
CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images
Steidl, an Italian national, was placed under legal supervision with the obligation to pay a bail of 100,000 euros and banned from leaving the country, prosecutors said.
The 44-year-old has been charged with drug trafficking, possessing and distributing images of child pornography, corruption of young people on the internet, as well as money worse, and managing an online platform to conduct an illegal transaction. with an organized group.
“Day of the Raiders”
Several of the crimes carry up to 10 years in prison.
The website was shut down after several warnings from associations about the danger posed by the site, known as “scan predators”. It was recorded on the Channel Island of Guernsey.
The online chat site did not require registration and allowed the users to remain anonymous.
Steidl was already questioned in Bulgaria in June.
Three of his relatives, who were suspected of having a role in the administration of the platform or of having benefited from the crimes, were interviewed in France.
In late July 2024, two site moderators were arrested in France, a police source told AFP.
“In total, more than 23,000 acts were reported to have been committed through Coco,” said Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
Prosecutors have said that more than 5 million euros linked to bank accounts in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands were seized.
Fifty co-defendants – the men who responded to Dominique Pelicot's invitation online — were also convicted.
The details of the crimes shocked France and the world, drawing renewed attention to male violence. The impact of the case was heightened by the decision of Gisele Pelicot delete her anonymously and select a public test.
She said she wanted the public proceedings to “hope that all the women who have been victims of rape can say to themselves: 'Madame Pelicot did it, so we can do it.'
CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images
“I don't want them to feel ashamed anymore. It's not up to us to feel ashamed – it's up to them (sexual attackers),” she said. “Above all, I declare my will and my intention to change this society. “
According to a study conducted by the Public Policy Instituteonly 14% of rape allegations in France lead to formal investigations.
