Latest news with #victimes
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Yahoo
Accused in deadly Amqui, Que., truck crash found guilty of murder
Steeve Gagnon has been found guilty of first-degree murder after running down and killing three people with his pickup truck in Amqui, Que., in March 2023. The 12 jurors, who began their deliberations behind closed doors on Friday morning, delivered their verdict at the courthouse in Rimouski, Que., on Saturday evening. Gagnon faced three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder using a motor vehicle. He was found guilty on all five charges. Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne immediately sentenced Gagnon to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years on the murder charges and 10 years for each of the attempted murder charges, to be served concurrently. Gérald Charest, 65, Jean Lafrenière, 73, and 41-year-old Simon-Guillaume Bourget were killed after being struck by Gagnon's vehicle. It was an emotional scene when families and community members exited the courtroom after the verdict. Some were tearful, while others seemed relieved. Amqui Mayor Sylvie Blanchette told Radio-Canada that people can now turn the page. "It doesn't erase anything," she said in French, "Gérald, Jean and Simon-Guillaume will not be coming back, but at least for the families, it's like a balm on a wound." "The verdict that they were waiting for is the one that came out," she said of the victims' loved ones. Gagnon admitted he was driving the vehicle that struck and killed three people and seriously injured three others, but during his jury trial, the defence argued it was an accident. His lawyer, Hugo Caissy, said Gagnon was driving when he dropped something on the floor of his vehicle, reached down to pick it up, and then lost control of the vehicle and struck the pedestrians. The Crown, however, had argued that Gagnon's actions were premeditated and intentional. The prosecutor pointed to a series of videos Gagnon recorded just two days before the crash, where he described running down children in a schoolyard with his truck. On March 13, 2023, the day of the crash, Gagnon stopped at a schoolyard, but there were no students there because it was a pedagogical day. Six minutes later, the first pedestrian was hit. In order to find Gagnon guilty of first-degree murder, jurors had to conclude that he intentionally ran down those people, and that he planned the crime in advance. "We always believed that that it was first-murder and we were confident in our evidence," Crown prosecutor Simon Blanchette said on Saturday. Meanwhile, the defence has 30 days to appeal the verdict. Caissy wouldn't comment on whether or not it's a path Gagnon will pursue.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Yahoo
Frenchman charged with commissioning online pedophile crimes in Colombia
A 55-year-old Frenchman suspected of commissioning online pedophile crimes in Colombia has been arrested and charged in France, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Saturday. The suspect was charged this week with complicity in human trafficking involving minors under the age of 15 who had been raped, rape and sexual assault of minors including incestuous acts, as well as acquisition, possession and consultation of pornographic images of minors. He was remanded in custody. The prosecutor's office said it worked closely with Colombian authorities and that the operation led to the simultaneous arrests of the suspect, local perpetrators and middlemen – the so-called money runners. Several victims were also identified and sheltered. Survivors decry failures exposed in France's biggest paedophilia trial Investigations revealed that the suspect had transferred more than €30,000 to several people in Colombia in exchange for images of young children being sexually abused, the prosecutor's office said. Weapons were also found at the individual's home. According to a source close to the case, confirming local media reports, the suspect is a garage owner from the Lille region in northern France. He reportedly took out a loan to pay for between 500 to 600 rapes over a four-year period. They involved children and adolescents from the same Colombian family. (with newswires) Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:French surgeon handed maximum 20-year term in paedophilia trialFrench police dismantle widespread paedophilia network hidden on TelegramEuropean crackdown reveals widespread child pornography network
Associated Press
21-06-2025
- Associated Press
A Frenchman charged with commissioning online pedophile crimes in Colombia
PARIS (AP) — A 55-year-old Frenchman suspected of commissioning online pedophile crimes in Colombia has been arrested and charged in France, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Saturday. The suspect was charged this week with complicity in human trafficking involving minors under the age of 15 who had been raped, rape and sexual assault of minors including incestuous acts, as well as acquisition, possession and consultation of pornographic images of minors. He was remanded in custody. The prosecutor's office said it worked with Colombian authorities and that the operation led to the simultaneous arrests of the suspect, local perpetrators and middlemen, the so-called money runners. Several victims were also identified and sheltered. Investigations revealed that the suspect had transferred more than 30,000 euros ($35,000) to several people in Colombia in exchange for images of young children being sexually abused, the prosecutor's office said. Weapons were also found at the individual's home. Online pedophile crime, also known as livestreaming, involves commissioning sexual assaults and rapes of minors in other countries from one's own country, generally in return for payment from the relatives of the victims, who are directly involved. The perpetrators then watch these videos live.
Times
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
France blocks move to include cousins in definition of ‘incest'
Nine out of ten French people want to extend the legal definition of incest to include cousins, but the move is being blocked by ministers fearful of igniting religious tensions. The government is said to be concerned that if it changed the incest law, it would also have to outlaw cousin marriages, which are rare in France as whole but common in some communities. A poll by Ipsos for Face à l'Inceste, the anti-incest association, found that 93 per cent of respondents wanted the notion to include cousins along with parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles. The poll was commissioned as part of a campaign to tighten laws on incest in a country that has been notoriously slow to address what was long a taboo subject. The word incest did not appear the criminal law code until 2010. Incest is now considered an aggravating factor in rape or sexual assault cases, but there is still no blanket ban on it, as there is in the UK. However, marriages involving parents, grandparents, siblings and aunts and uncles are outlawed. Critics say the country's ambiguous approach to incest has caused widespread damage, and studies show that about one in ten French people are victims. Fathers and fathers-in-law constitute 32.7 per cent of the perpetrators, according to research in 2020, followed by uncles on 17.9 per cent. Face à l'Inceste says that up to 20 per cent of incestuous assaults are committed by cousins. Corentin Legras, a researcher at the School of Higher Social Sciences Studies, agreed, saying sexual assaults by older cousins were widespread, notably during family get-togethers. France's Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children seized upon these findings to press the government to include cousins within the legal definition of incest. But ministers refused. Legras said: 'A relationship cannot be incestuous if there is a possibility of marriage afterwards.' Ministers are said to be reluctant to ban cousin marriages, which remain common in France's Romany community, which is estimated at up to 350,000 people. Cousin marriages are also occasional among Muslim immigrant populations and rare but not unheard-of among traditional Catholics. Christine Boutin, 81, who was housing minister between 2007 and 2009 in the centre-right government of the day, is married to Louis, her first cousin, for instance. She angrily rejects suggestions that their relationship is incestuous. They have three children.
News.com.au
28-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
French court to rule on surgeon who abused children for decades
A French court is to give its verdict Wednesday in the trial of a surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of patients over more than two decades, in one of the country's largest child sex abuse cases. Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, is already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. In this trial, which began in February, he has admitted sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients -- 256 of them under 15 -- in hospitals in western France between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Le Scouarnec is charged with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults and is set to emerge as one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history. The victims have been represented by around 60 lawyers. "I hope the verdict will be commensurate with the horrors he committed," Amelie Leveque, one of the victims, told AFP. "But I don't believe it very much." Victims and child rights advocates say the surgeon's case highlights systemic shortcomings that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes. Prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger has requested the maximum 20-year sentence for the retired surgeon and also made the rare demand that he should be held in a centre for treatment and supervision even after any release due to his "dangerousness". In France, sentences are not added together, unlike in the United States where Le Scouarnec would have been jailed for "2,000 years", said the prosecutor. - 'Major pervert' - "I am not asking the court for leniency," Le Scouarnec said in his closing statement in Vannes in the western region of Brittany on Monday. "Simply grant me the right to become a better person," he said. The verdict, which will be handed down by presiding judge Aude Buresi, is expected to be announced from 2:30 pm (1230 GMT). One of the lawyers, Maxime Tessier, has asked the court to take into account the "exceptional" nature of Le Scouarnec's confession when he admitted all the charges against him in March. The retired surgeon also said he considered himself "responsible" for the death of two of his victims -- Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021 in what his family says was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020. Le Scouarnec documented his crimes, noting his victims' names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse. In his notes, the doctor described himself as a "major pervert" and a "paedophile". "And I am very happy about it," he recorded. - 'Never again' - While Le Scouarnec has asked his victims for forgiveness, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial, sometimes word for word. "You are the worst mass paedophile who ever lived," said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, describing Le Scouarnec as an "atomic bomb of paedophilia". The victims "will never forgive you. Never," Delaby told the defendant. "Who are you trying to convince that you've changed?" said another lawyer, Delphine Caro. "Admitting everything is admitting nothing," added a third lawyer, Giovanni Bertho-Briand. The surgeon practised for decades until his retirement in 2017 despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children and colleagues raising their concerns. Le Scouarnec might stand trial again in the future, the public prosecutor said. Prosecutors opened two investigations, one of which concerns unidentified or newly reported victims of Le Scouarnec. There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact in France they hoped for. The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele. But Health Minister Yannick Neuder said on Wednesday he would work with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to ensure that "never again will we find ourselves in a situation where patients and vulnerable children" are exposed to predators. A collective of the survivors is set to meet with Neuder in June.
