This Friday, January 17, a forty-year-old comes forward, stressed, to the bar of the court. “I feel very ashamed. » He is accused of theft of the identity of third parties using an electronic communications network, and the possession of images of minors of a pornographic nature.
As is often the case, the defendant uses the excuse of alcohol to explain his actions. “I regret for the victims. I got carried away by alcohol, and I got lost on the Internet. » In 2015, already, he (1) gets up at night, spends hours on the Web, where he engages in illegal practices. His girlfriend notices. Leaves him.
In 2016, he created a fake profile on Facebook, and displayed a photo of this ex. He posts stolen, intimate photos of her, and in conversations, he passes her off as a “libertine, naughty, wild” young woman. She will learn of the existence of this fake account in 2021. He also usurps the identity of her new companion. Finally, the forty-year-old goes even further by creating a false profile with the image and identity of the daughter of one of his friends, then aged 11.
“Watching, broadcasting is contributing”
“I have the impression that we are at confession. The sound of his voice is dull, he has no words and he hopes to be forgiven,” pleads Me Bellandi, frustrated, alongside his client, to obtain little explanation from the respondent during the hearing. “My client is far from forgiving him. While she was a prisoner of his carelessness, he led his quiet, miserable life. As early as 2015, he could have done some introspection. This was not the case. »
The gendarmes discovered, in the wake of their investigations, 1,979 child pornography photos stored on his phone. The investigation takes a new turn. The forty-year-old, after his custody, is indicted and placed under judicial supervision in 2021. “These images are disgusting,” protests the public prosecutor. Images of rape of minors, which he broadcasts on the Internet. “Watching, broadcasting, is contributing! »
-Three years in prison
The forty-year-old, not very forthcoming, repeats over and over again that he is aware of having a problem. That he needs to get treatment. For a year, however, it has not been followed. His lawyer, Me Lehmann struggles to get him to admit his fascination with child pornography during the hearing. “He has a lot of shame and guilt. » In the room, the students of a final year class from the Jacques-de-Romas high school, in Nérac, listen attentively. The prosecutor takes advantage of these young attentive ears to convey a few messages: “We spend our time informing, warning adolescents and children about the abuses of social networks…”
The forty-year-old residing in Estillac was sentenced to three years in prison, including two years with a probationary suspension of three years, and a treatment order. The court issued a deferred committal warrant, giving the forty-year-old time – two months – to delete all the false accounts he may have created.
(1) In order to preserve the anonymity of the minors involved in this case, the name of the accused is not mentioned.
