A former amateur magician is on trial from Friday, September 30 before the Ille-et-Vilaine minors' assize court for the rape and sexual assault of nearly 30 children, most between 2006 and 2017.
Aged 36, the accused is appearing for acts of "
incestuous rape
", "
rape of a 15-year-old minor
", "
sexual assault
" and "
corruption of a minor
" on 27 children, aged 3 to 15 at the time of the facts.
The trial, which is due to last three weeks, could take place behind closed doors, in whole or in part.
The verdict is expected on October 21.
"Privileged Relationships"
The first facts accuse the man of incestuous rape on a cousin and a half-sister when he himself was a minor.
But it was from 2006 that the accused, a self-employed person managing a magic activity, would have started to use his work to get closer to children from his family and friends.
According to a source familiar with the matter, he would have managed in this way to "
create privileged relations
" with minors.
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For the parents, this man had become "
the friend of the family, the good uncle who looks after the children
", a man "
very jovial, open-minded
", "
a kind of modus operandi
", according to Me Gwendoline Tenier, lawyer for a mother whose daughter was abused.
The 30-year-old is accused of numerous acts of rape committed mostly in Brittany, but also in Normandy, Deux-Sèvres, Switzerland, often in the homes of the parents of the victims.
Twenty years of imprisonment
Aged only 3 or 5 years old, some victims would not have realized that they had been sexually assaulted.
Ill-being, panic... some children later suffered psychological consequences, while their parents continued to live "
with the guilt of not having seen anything
", explains Me Tenier to AFP.
A first complaint was filed in 2014, but the case only broke out in 2017, when the accused said he wanted to confide in a mother "
having done something
" to her child.
He is then taken into custody.
Placed in pre-trial detention in December 2017, he acknowledges most of the facts.
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In 2011, the man was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence with a ban on appearing with minors for the assault of a girl he met in a recreation center.
Tried as a repeat offender in Rennes, he faces 20 years in prison.
The trial must open in the presence of about thirty civil parties.