52 people were arrested this week during a vast crackdown in the field of child crime across the country, AFP learned Thursday, October 14 from the Central Office for the Repression of Violence to the Person ( OCRVP).
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All are suspected of having detained or made available child pornography images and / or videos. The hearings carried out in police custody made it possible, "
on the margins
" according to the OCRVP, to bring to light potential acts of sexual assault and rape of minors, for which additional investigations are being carried out by the prosecutors concerned.
Among those arrested between Tuesday and Thursday by the OCRVP, in collaboration with the territorial divisions of the judicial police and throughout France, was a woman, but who was released after her custody.
These people are "
independent of each other
" and "
their profile is varied, ranging from students to retirees
".
The youngest is 22 years old.
"
Some are socially very integrated, others more marginalized
" the same source said.
A "punch" to "this type of delinquency"
Among them, a 36-year-old teacher and municipal councilor in Bédarieux (Hérault), said the prosecutor of Béziers, Raphaël Balland, in a press release released on Wednesday. “
During his custody, after defending himself, he ended up admitting to having a sexual attraction towards boys aged 16 to 18 and having downloaded on peer-to-peer networks (which allow files to be exchanged without going through a server) some pornographic images featuring minors but that he immediately erased them,
”he added. "
The first operations of several computer and telephone elements seized at his home made it possible to confirm his sexual attraction to young men and adolescents.
Continued the prosecutor.
The man was indicted for detention, offering, making available and importing pornographic files featuring minors between October 2015 and October 2021, and placed in pre-trial detention.
The OCRVP says it has targeted “
consumers (of child pornography images) at the level of downloading and consequent file exchanges
” and who live on “
the whole of the territory
” in order to “
strike a punch at the national level to this type of delinquency
”.
The OCRVP had already carried out a large net in the pedophile environment in October 2020, during which about sixty people had been arrested.
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Since the summer of 2020, viewing and downloading child pornography images has been punishable by five years' imprisonment, compared to two previously, and the perpetrators are automatically registered with the Fijais (automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual offenses).
