• A 26-year-old man, former animator of a summer camp, was tried before the Assises de la Gironde from Monday to Friday for acts of rape and sexual assault on five girls aged 3 to 5 years.

  • He was sentenced on Friday to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment, a sentence in accordance with the requisitions of the general counsel.

  • Counsel for the accused announced at the end of the hearing that he was going to appeal this decision.

A former host of an airy center in Arcachon was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on minors by the Gironde Assize Court.

The court followed the requisitions of the public prosecutor during this trial which took place for five days behind closed doors, a measure granted by right to victims who request it in rape cases.

He is also bound by an obligation of care for 10 years and will be registered in the file of perpetrators of sexual offences.

Five civil parties

The former host of the Mille Potes airy center, now 26, was on trial for the rape and sexual assault of five little girls aged 3 to 5 at the time of the events, in 2016. The case had sparked the excitement of the families of Arcachon.

A white march was organized in 2019 after new complaints from families were filed.

Five of them had joined as civil parties.

The accused, who faced up to 20 years in prison, contested the rape charges throughout the trial, recognizing however "caresses" according to his lawyer Christian Blazy, who evokes a "failure".

For him, his client did not deserve this sentence: "This boy was free for five years, there was no problem," he said.

He announced his decision to appeal the conviction as soon as the hearing ended.

“This affair was distorted from the start by a media hype which initially aimed to weaken the municipality,” lamented his council.

He believes that the accusation of rape is not based on “no objective element, only the words of children aged 3 to 4 years old”.

For Arash Derambarsh, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, there were however "indisputable elements of the guilt" of the accused, citing in particular the psychological expertise presented to the court.

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  • Bordeaux

  • Aquitaine

  • child crime

  • Rape

  • sexual assault