No less than 10,200 photos and videos of children subjected to sexual violence were discovered on its computer equipment.
Dominique Lott, former mayor of Échenon, appears this Wednesday before the Dijon court for acquisition, possession and dissemination of child pornography images and faces a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
The 60-year-old was arrested last November during a major raid by the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP) resulting in the arrest of 47 other suspects of the same facts.
Among them, individuals aged 26 to 79, business leaders, national education officials, members of associations, and even host families.
But only one of them runs a town: at the time of his arrest, Dominique Lott was indeed mayor of Échenon, a village of some 800 inhabitants in Côte-d'Or.
“Learning that he was downloading child pornography content was a terrible shock for the whole village because everyone here has known him for years and was one day his friend,”
breathes an Échenonnais interviewed by
Le Figaro
.
"We're going crazy"
After initial denials, Dominique Lott finally admits during his police custody that he has been obtaining
“child pornography files for five years”.
“Pre-teens”
(
“preteens”
, Ed),
“real rape”
(
“real rape”
, Ed),
“pedo fantasy”
(
pedophile fantasy
, Ed)… Are all keywords he recognizes have searched.
If Dominique Lott concedes to be interested in
"young girls, in the 12-14 years"
, he disputes on the other hand to feel sexual arousal for the children.
"It was curiosity (...) a gear where it is difficult to stop (...) We become crazy"
, he tells the investigators, according to information from
Figaro
.
Aware of the accusations weighing on their mayor, the citizens quickly demanded his resignation.
From then on, a showdown began between the village and the 64-year-old man, placed under judicial supervision, who refused to leave his post.
Gradually cornered by a petition bringing together 964 signatories, the sexagenarian finally gives in and retires a month later, in mid-December.
In Échenon, "a wound still alive"
"Since then, Dominique Lott has moved from the village because he lived right next to the kindergarten ... It has helped to ease tensions somewhat, but the wound is still alive and the subject is hypersensitive here", describes this resident
. of Echenon.
After the popular condemnation, Dominique Lott must now explain himself to a judge.
Facing him, no victims - the children present in the photos and videos have not been identified - but an association for the protection of minors, the Children's Foundation, which is a civil party.
“The absence of the direct victims at the hearing gives, wrongly, the impression that everything is virtual, that it is about photomontages.
Our presence makes it possible to collectively realize that behind these images, there are human victims of violence
, ”insists with Le
Figaro
Me Céline Astolfe, lawyer for the Children's Foundation.
