Sordid facts, cruelly carried out in secret for several years. A 76-year-old man was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention this Monday for rape, sexual assault and corruption of a minor on a 10-year-old child, the Nancy prosecutor's office said this Wednesday, confirming information from France Bleu.
The man, who resided in a home for the elderly in Tomblaine (Meurthe-et-Moselle), was arrested during the night from Friday to Saturday in his room, following an alert given by a night watchman. The latter heard a discussion of a sexual nature between this man and a little girl.
The police therefore went to the scene and discovered the little girl, hidden under a duvet, wearing only a t-shirt on her. The child told investigators that he had suffered sexual touching and rape on several occasions from the septuagenarian.
Already convicted of rape of a minor
In police custody, the man - a former football coach - admitted the facts, which began in 2022. Close to the family, the old man took care of the little girl on Friday afternoons, and the latter sometimes stayed to sleep with him. Presented to the prosecution on Sunday after his custody, he was imprisoned.
The suspect was already known to the justice services. “He was sentenced on March 2, 2004 by the Meurthe-et-Moselle Assize Court for rape of a minor to the penalty of 12 years of criminal imprisonment, with socio-judicial monitoring for 5 years and deprivation of all civil, civil and family rights,” said public prosecutor François Capin-Dulhoste.
A psychiatric assessment was carried out, and showed that the septuagenarian presented a “sexual preference disorder with a pedophilic component”, with “a criminological danger, without alteration or abolition of discernment”.
The investigations will now continue under the control of an investigating judge, who will focus in particular on verifying whether the accused was able to leave other potential victims behind.