“Ratatouille”, “Lilo and Stitch”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Incredibles”, “Up There”. He was the star of American animation studios like Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks. But recently, it is for his alleged crimes that the cartoonist Bolhem B., 59, has been talked about: a serious case of remote rape of children in South-East Asia. The designer is referred to the Paris Assize Court for complicity in rape and complicity in sexual assault on minors, according to information from Le Figaro, confirmed to Le Parisien by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The investigators traced him to him by delving into a “livestream” file, these live broadcasts on WhatsApp or Skype of sexual abuse committed against children: in exchange for money sent by Internet users, parents subject touching, rape, and sometimes even torture of their children. The sponsors of these acts remain behind their screens.
And Bohlem B. would be one of them. It was his money transfers to a Filipino woman, known for exploiting minors via livestreaming, that alerted the Minors Office (Ofmin). According to investigators, between February 2012 and September 2021, the suspect transferred nearly 50,000 euros to the Philippines. He allegedly committed sexual acts, violence and torture on young victims aged 5 to 10 years old.
“Perverted as I was”
“For example, I told mothers to spread the children’s legs because I couldn’t see very well, perverse as I was, I wanted to see,” he described, quoted by Le Figaro.
On October 4, 2021, Bohlem B., a repeat offender, having already received a 2-year suspended sentence in 2014 for sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor, was arrested and indicted. According to Le Figaro, he admits the facts before the investigating magistrate. The suspect is placed in pre-trial detention.
The man, originally from Angoulême (Charente), who shared his life between France and the United States, will be tried by the Paris Assize Court for complicity in the rape of a minor, complicity in sexual assault, complicity in trafficking in human beings aggravated by the plurality of victims and possession and habitual consultation of pornographic images of minors. He faces up to 20 years of imprisonment, “maximum doubled due to repeat offense”, or 40 years, specifies the Paris prosecutor’s office.
