It would have taken six hours for the Paris Assize Court to deliberate. Bouhalem Bouchiba, the former “star” graphic designer of Disney and Pixar, was sentenced on Thursday night to 25 years in prison, with a two-thirds security period, for complicity in rape and of sexual assaults on several hundred Filipino girls.
The 59-year-old man was found guilty of complicity in repeat rape and sexual assault of minors, but also of complicity in aggravated human trafficking of minors as repeat repeat offender and habitual viewing of child pornography content online.
The court also accepted the aggravating circumstance of acts of torture and barbarity which had been submitted to it by the prosecution concerning the facts of complicity in rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. However, he was acquitted of possession of child pornography images “for the benefit of the doubt”. The Paris Assize Court also ordered 20 years of socio-judicial supervision, the obligation to compensate the civil parties and a definitive ban on exercising a profession with minors.
“Horrible” and “disgusting” acts, according to the accused himself
During his last speech, Bouhalem Bouchiba, bald head and graying beard, once again admitted his guilt. “I realize everything I have done. I ask forgiveness from the victims,” he added.
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 gave the orders, which he himself described as “horrible” and “disgusting”, and masturbated.
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 accused admits “all the alleged facts”
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.
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 acts” charged 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 these children, Bouhalem Bouchiba, described by experts as a “pedophile” and “sadist”, admitted to using the term “pigs” and ordered violent and “scripted” acts against them.
Between 50 and 100 euros
For example, he ordered people to put “a T-shirt in the pig's mouth”, to find “a pig to cut it entirely” or to use a knife on a child's genitals. 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. A way, according to him, to clear customs. “Every time I sent money, it gave me 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 9-year-old stepdaughter.
