Second day this Tuesday of the trial at the assizes of the college professor, scout camp leader and former deputy mayor, 50 years old, Jean-Christophe Karcher.

He is on trial for 34 sexual assaults on little girls and three rapes.

The defendant had confessed during the investigation to his attraction to the bodies of pre-adolescent girls.

If he recognized the touching during the investigation, he denies the rapes.

Rectangular glasses, anthracite fleece and bald head, Jean-Christophe Karcher took place Monday in the box without a look for the numerous assistance on the first day of his trial before the court.

After the appeal of the jurors and the civil parties, a partial closed session was pronounced at the request of the civil parties.

This first day was devoted to the course of the accused.

In the wake of a youth spent in "a rather classic family structure", Jean-Christophe Karcher turned to teaching "by default" according to his lawyer, his father being himself a teacher.

“He would have liked to be an engineer”, explained again during a suspension of hearing Maître Gaëlle Mootoosamy, whose client denied having chosen this profession to be close to children responding to his desires.

“A manipulative attitude”, denounced Maître Michaël Plançon, lawyer for six civil parties, for whom the accused tried to “drown his answers in a flood of discontinuous answers”, during this first speech.

"The Shark Game"

The victims, mostly friends of the accused's daughters, who unknowingly served as "bait", were invited to the family pool where he imposed the "shark game".

In the pool, Jean-Christophe Karcher took the opportunity to grab the girls, often on their private parts or under their swimsuits.

After swimming, followed the bath, then drying and massages that the little girls, naked, had to promise to keep secret.

Other assaults allegedly took place during scout camps in which the accused participated.

"He used a label of respectability to achieve his perverse ends", underlined Maître Benoît Chabert, lawyer for the association of Scouts and guides of France, who filed a civil action, denouncing an accused who did not " only talked about him, without first asking for forgiveness".

A sprawling affair

The facts retained took place between 2007 and 2018, most of the victims were between 9 and 11 years old.

The sprawling affair rocked Niederroedern, the town of barely 1,000 inhabitants about thirty kilometers from Strasbourg where the aggressor and most of the victims originated The notability of the accused, very integrated into the local life, doubtless discouraged the victims and their parents as to their desire to denounce him.

It was finally at the beginning of 2018 that one of the victims, who had become a high school student, confided in a school social worker about what the father of a girlfriend had subjected her to when she was younger.

The report of the National Education allowed the investigation and the release of the word of all the girls.

The father of Jean-Christophe Karcher stood him on the bench of the defendants, back to the box and to his son.

This 80-year-old man faces three years in prison for destruction of evidence, and appears free.

At the request of his son, who has been incarcerated since the end of 2018, he burned several USB keys in his boiler, on which there were certainly videos of the attacks.

The investigators, as well as the mother of the accused, testified during the afternoon.

At the end of the day, the mayor of Niederroedern, Denis Drion, of whom Jean-Christophe Karcher was the first deputy, was also called to the bar.

The verdict is expected on October 14.

Company

Bordeaux: The State sued because of the conditions of detention in the prison of Gradignan

Miscellaneous facts

Toulouse: He violently assaulted a woman and attempted to rape her, a 16-year-old arrested

Regarding the partial closed session, only a journalist from the local press was authorized to attend the debates, his colleagues being asked to leave the room before the start of the discussions.

A decision notably criticized on Twitter by Jean-Philippe Deniau, president of the Association of Judicial Press Journalists, protested against this measure: “Ladies and gentlemen magistrates, no!

We do not choose journalists likely to follow a trial.

It is an obstacle to freedom of information.

Thank you for reconsidering this iniquitous decision.

  • child crime

  • Justice

  • Child

  • Strasbourg

  • assize court

  • Great East

  • Freedom of press