Heavy Sentences for Angers Abusers

On Wednesday, sixty-two people were found guilty and sentenced in one of France's biggest child sex trials. Sentences ranged from four months suspended to 28 years for second-time offenders. The leaders of the huge paedophile ring that operated in Saint Léonard — a gleaming modern development in the proseperous town of Angers, 265 km from Paris — received the longest jail terms. All together 39 men and 26 women, aged between 23 and 73, had been charged with a catalog of prostitution, rapes and sexual assaults carried out on 45 babies and children between January 1999 and February 2002. Three people were acquitted by the special court. Charges against another defendant were dropped because of ill health.

One man, known simply as Philippe, was jailed for 28 years for his role which included the rape of his granddaughters. Another of his victims was his son, Franck V., who himself was among the accused. He was sentenced to 18 years for raping 14 children — including three of his own — while his former partner, 32-year-old Patricia M., received a 16-year jail term for crimes including the rape of her daughter and prostituting her son. Time reported in April how she regularly took in about €1,200 a month from men willing to rape her children. Much of the abuse is believed to have been carried out at the couple's apartment in the western town. A group of men, who the children say arrived in suits and ties with their faces hidden behind masks, are still unidentified.

One social worker received a jail sentence of one year with six months suspended for failing to report the sexual abuse on some of the youngsters. Most of the families involved had been visited by social workers but for years no action was taken.

Lawyers involved in the case have described it as a distressing example of the breakdown of moral and social values on a council estate. The court has yet to rule on compensation and care for the victims.