Europe 1 with AFP 6:55 p.m., May 2, 2022
The accused, a restaurateur, had gone to the Philippines where he had invested in a pizzeria in Dumaguete City, on the island of Negros, after leaving a Dunkirk establishment in which he worked.
This father had been arrested near Tours in September 2017, during a return to France.
The trial of a French man in his fifties suspected of having raped a young girl in the Philippines between 2015 and 2017, then of having shared several videos on the Internet, opened on Monday before the assizes in Tours.
The accused, a restaurateur, had gone to the Philippines where he had invested in a pizzeria in Dumaguete City, on the island of Negros, after leaving a Dunkirk establishment in which he worked.
This father had been arrested near Tours in September 2017, during a return to France.
Aged 51, he is being prosecuted for rape of a minor under the age of 15, possession and dissemination of child pornography, and participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime.
He faces up to twenty years in prison.
Spotted by a cyber-patrolman from the Lyon SRPJ on a pedophile forum on the darknet, the accused broadcast at least 14 child pornography videos.
He was then identified by French and Australian police.
The young victim, aged 9 at the time, had been forced into prostitution by her uncle.
She was meeting her alleged attacker at a hotel after flying to Manila.
She is due to testify Tuesday by videoconference from the Philippines.
For these facts, the uncle was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Philippine courts.
"Classic Childhood"
During the hearing on Monday, the accused admitted the facts while refuting the qualification of rape of a minor.
The accused and his lawyer, Me Jacques Sieklucki, chose to evoke the recourse to prostitution of a minor, qualification which constitutes an offense and not a crime.
The accused was described by his father as "a boy without problems".
An "ordinary trajectory" and a "classic childhood", according to the investigators.
The psychiatrist expert then described "the neurotic personality" but "not perverse" of the individual who lives in "nostalgia" for a relationship with a cousin.
He was 15 then, she was 11.
In another part of the trial, the 50-year-old told the undercover police officer that he was on a "plan" in France to abuse two young girls aged 5 and 8 at the initiative of the mother of the two children.
Except that this "mom" was in fact just another man who appeared under judicial supervision.
The 58-year-old proposed his wife's daughters using photos of his granddaughters.
An appointment had been made when the main accused returned to France.
During his auditions, the second man declared that he never intended to make this appointment a reality, evoking a "fantasy".
The trial is due to last until Wednesday.