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Many guilty of child rape in French trial, AP, AFP, 28 July 2005
The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2005 ANGERS, France.
A court convicted dozens of defendants in a pedophilia trial Wednesday and sentenced two of them to up to 28 years in prison for their roles in a network that systematically raped and prostituted children in western France.
Prosecutors said 45 children between the ages of 6 months and 14 years were raped and abused by their parents, grandparents or acquaintances in a working-class neighborhood of Angers from 1999 to 2002 - at times in exchange for small amounts of money, food, alcohol or cigarettes.
Three of the 65 defendants were acquitted.
Of the 65 accused, 26 were female, and charges against a 27th woman were dropped because of ill health.
Defendants appeared one-by-one to hear their sentences. One man, Eric J., pounded on the table and started an argument as the court read out his 28-year sentence. Police officers escorted him out of the room.
Eric J., an alleged organizer of the ring, was described by prosecutors as an "ogre." He was accused of raping or abusing 15 children.
The other man handed a 28-year sentence, Philippe V., was convicted of raping three of his grandchildren.
During the trial, he coldly stated that he "didn't give a damn" about his own children. He had already been convicted in 1991 of raping his son.
His son, Franck V., also participated in the ring and received an 18-year sentence.
He was accused of 12 rapes and was also blamed for allowing much of the abuse to occur at his apartment. His former wife, Patricia M., was given a 16-year term.
Pascal Rouiller, a lawyer who represented Franck V., had argued in the trial that state social workers were to blame for leaving dozens of children vulnerable to the ring that preyed on them.
More than half of the accused, aged 27 to 73, were unemployed, and living off benefits in state-supported housing. Defense lawyers have said some suspects were illiterate and appeared not to fully understand the charges they faced.
Moise C., who had already been convicted twice on pedophilia charges, was found guilty of rape and sexual aggression. Considered by prosecutors as one of the most dangerous defendants, he was handed an 18-year sentence.
Victims and suspects in the trial cannot be identified by full names because of French laws designed to preserve the anonymity of child victims, and naming accused parents would effectively name the children.
Three couples at the heart of the case lured their children and those of their friends, relatives and neighbors by saying they were going to "play doctor," according to the prosecution's 420-page legal filing charges. One girl allegedly was raped 45 times.
The jury ignored the arguments of defense lawyers, who said that in so monumental a trial - a charge sheet of 25,000 pages, 250 witnesses, and 93 days of hearings - it was impossible to reach fair conclusions on the guilt or innocence of 65 individuals.
"Our fears are very real," said Rouiller, the defense lawyer. "We are very afraid there'll be a kind of collective responsibility - a generalized guilt. It will be extremely hard for jurors to treat each accused as a separate person."
Another defense lawyer, Patrick Descamps, said the court had to take into account "the background to the affair, which is social deprivation, failures of the judicial and social services, pornography."
He added, "Nearly all the accused were themselves abused when they were children. They had no trial."
© 2005 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved