The case had caused a stir in the seaside town of 10,000 inhabitants. A former host of an airy center in Arcachon was sentenced this Friday to 15 years of criminal imprisonment for rape and sexual assault of minors by the Assize Court of Gironde, we learned from lawyers.
The court followed the requisitions of the public prosecutor during this trial which took place for five days behind closed doors, a measure granted by right to victims who request it in rape cases. The court also combined his sentence with a care obligation for 10 years.
The former host of the Mille potes airy center, now 26, was on trial for the rape and sexual assault of five little girls aged 3 to 5 at the time of the events, in 2016.
Judicial information was opened in December 2017 following a first complaint, which led to his indictment in January 2017. A white march was organized in 2019 to support the victims, publicize the facts, and put the town hall before its responsibilities, after the filing of new complaints from the families. Five of them had joined as civil parties.
He recognized “caresses”
The accused, who was facing up to 20 years in prison, contested the rape charges throughout the trial, acknowledging however “caresses” according to his lawyer Christian Blazy.
For Arash Derambarsh, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, there were however “indisputable elements of the guilt” of the accused, citing in particular the psychological expertise presented to the court.
For Christian Blazy, “this affair was distorted from the start by a media hype which initially aimed to weaken the municipality”. He believes that the accusation of rape is not based on “no objective element, only the words of children aged 3 to 4 years old”.
For him, his client did not deserve this sentence: “This boy was free for five years, there was no problem,” he said. He announced his decision to appeal the conviction as soon as the hearing ended.