The trial of a college professor, scout leader and deputy mayor, accused of 34 sexual assaults and three rapes of young girls, opened on Monday, October 3 before the Bas-Rhin Assize Court.
Rectangular glasses, anthracite fleece and white hair on a partially bald head, Jean-Christophe Karcher, 50, took his place in the box, without looking at the large audience, made up of several of his alleged young victims, and some of their parents.
"Shark Game"
After the appeal of the jurors and the civil parties, a partial closed session was pronounced at the request of the civil parties.
Surprisingly, only a journalist from the local press was authorized to attend the debates, his colleagues - including AFP - being asked to leave the room before the start of the discussions devoted to the course of the accused.
The former first deputy mayor, college professor and scout camp leader had confessed during the investigation to his attraction to the body of pre-adolescent girls.
The victims, mostly friends of his daughters who served as "
bait
", were invited to the family pool where he imposed the "
shark game
".
In the pool, Jean-Christophe Karcher took the opportunity to grab the girls with the whole hand, often on their private parts and getting lost under their swimsuits.
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After swimming, followed the bath, which he insisted on giving to these children old enough to do it alone, multiplying the touching.
Then it was drying, and massages, where the little girls, naked, had to promise to keep the secret.
Other assaults allegedly took place during scout camps in which the accused participated.
The facts taken place between 2007 and 2018 and most of the victims were between 9 and 11 years old.
The sprawling affair rocked Niederroedern, the town of barely 1,000 inhabitants about thirty kilometers from Strasbourg where the attacker and most of the victims originated.
The notoriety of the accused, very integrated into local life, undoubtedly discouraged the victims and their relatives in their desire to denounce him.
Accused denies rape
It was finally at the beginning of 2018 that one of the victims, who had become a high school student, confided in a school social worker about what the father of a girlfriend had subjected her to when she was younger.
The National Education report allowed the investigation and the release of speech for all the girls.
Jean-Christophe Karcher's father faces three years in prison for destruction of evidence, and appears free.
At the request of his son, who has been incarcerated since the end of 2018, this 80-year-old man burned several USB keys in his boiler, on which there were most certainly videos of the attacks.
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According to his lawyer, Jean-Christophe Karcher recognizes the touching but denies the rapes.
The verdict is expected on October 14.