However, he was acquitted of possession of child pornography images “for the benefit of the doubt”.
The Paris Assize Court also ordered a 20-year socio-judicial follow-up, the obligation to compensate the civil parties and a definitive ban on exercising a profession with minors.
During his last speech, Bouhalem Bouchiba, bald head and graying beard, once again admitted his guilt.
“I am aware of everything I have done. I ask forgiveness from the victims,” he added.
“However audible it may be, this decision is also a defeat of thought, a refusal of obstacles in the face of reflection on the pain to which the phenomenon of + livestream + must incite us”, reacted Romain Ruiz, one of his lawyers, about the verdict.
The 59-year-old man had been on trial since Tuesday for having, between 2012 and 2021, paid Filipino women to rape and sexually assault young Filipino girls, aged five to 10, and at least once a little girl from two years, in front of a webcam via the practice of “live-streaming”.
On the other side of the screen, the accused was giving orders that he himself described as “horrible” and “disgusting” and was masturbating.
“Sadistic”
Earlier in the day the public prosecutor had requested the same sentence against the accused.
“On the garden side, you have the graphic designer who amazes children (…) then on the court side, Bouhalem Bouchiba is a pedophile director who scripts his own horror films,” declared general counsel Philippe Courroye.
The defense had pleaded in favor of “nuance” in this case where the accused had admitted “all the alleged facts”, also calling for “his psychological evolution” to be taken into consideration.
In a joint press release, the civil party child protection associations welcomed on Friday a verdict “meeting the extreme seriousness of the facts”, which sends “a strong message to the attention of child criminals”.
For three days, several experts followed one another, detailing the story of this man who had become an “international luminary of drawing”, according to the president of the court Mahrez Abassi, but with a “complex” past and “disturbed sexuality”.
During his interrogation, the accused spontaneously admitted to being guilty of “all the facts” alleged and highlighted “the benefits of prison” in his journey of redemption.
“For three years, I did not masturbate while thinking about a child,” he assured.
To talk about his victims, Bouhalem Bouchiba, described by experts as a “pedophile” and “sadist”, admitted to using the term “pigs” and ordered violent and “scripted” acts against them.
According to him, these directives were intended “to scare (himself)”, but he recognized that they were akin to “torture”.
It was once the video was finished that he sent the money. Between 50 and 100 euros. Which “gave him a psychological release from responsibility”, he argued.
According to the investigation, Bouhalem Bouchiba would have spent more than 50,000 euros over the period.
His name was registered in Fijais, the sex offenders file, after a first conviction in 2014 for sexually assaulting his stepdaughter, then aged nine.
