Jail for leaders of paedophile ring

Published on 02/07/2004 12:25

A COURT in northern France has convicted ten members of a paedophile ring after a trial that gripped the nation.

The court heard allegations of sexual abuse, torture and bestiality involving children from three to 18 in the town of Outreau between 1995 and 2000.

After nearly two months of hearings and 15 hours of deliberations, the court sentenced 37-year-old Myriam Delay-Badaoui, the woman at the centre of the trial, to 15 years in prison for child rape.

Her husband, unemployed alcoholic Thierry Delay, 40, and another couple who were their neighbours, were also handed hefty prison sentences for rape. All four had confessed to raping the Delay couple’s four children.

The court also sentenced priest Dominique Wiel and another man to prison for rape, and found four others guilty of abusing, but not raping, children. All six had pleaded innocent. Seven other people were acquitted.

The conviction of ten of the 17 defendants came despite Delay-Badaoui telling the court in May that she had falsely accused 13 of those on trial - all except the two couples - of involvement in a paedophilia ring.

Delay-Badaoui, her husband and their neighbours David Delplanque and Aurelie Grenon admitted taking part in rapes at Delay-Badaoui’s home in Outreau in northern France from 1995 until 2000, when social services raised the alarm.

Though the two couples were expected to be found guilty, the conviction of the six other defendants was widely unexpected after Delay-Badaoui had withdrawn her accusations.

Today’s ruling came two days after Belgian prosecutors said a French forest warden and convicted rapist had confessed to raping and killing six girls, and may have killed more victims.

The confession by warden Michel Fourniret, 62, prompted authorities across western Europe yesterday to reopen unsolved murder files going back 30 years.

Magistrates from three Belgian cities - Liege, Namur and Dinant - announced that Fourniret admitted killing the six girls.

Police arrested Fourniret, who holds a French passport, last July on charges of kidnapping and sexual abuse after a 14-year-old girl managed to escape from the back of his van.