APPALLED: The French have been shocked by the alleged involvement of mothers in the abuse
Yet what occurred here between 1999 and 2002, years when surveys named Angers as one of the best places to live in France, has horrified the nation. In what could become the biggest French criminal proceeding ever, 39 men and 27 women went on trial last month for involvement in a massive prostitution trade of 45 children — many of them their own. At least 26 men and 13 women are accused of directly prostituting and raping girls and boys, some of whom were still in kindergarten. Prosecutors say that over three years, some 21 couples traded their children for cash, groceries and, in one case, a new car tire. According to prosecutors, Marine V., a pretty blond girl who's now 9, was just one of the victims. She was allegedly raped by about 30 men, including neighbors, uncles, her father and grandfather. Marine's mother acted as banker, allege prosecutors, collecting envelopes full of cash.
In their small voices, the children's excruciating account of their nightmare was shown in videotaped testimonies in the courtroom last week. Sucking her thumb at times, Marine V. described playing sexual games of "doctor" with visiting men. The children's details of their long ordeal are almost unbearable to hear. But equally disquieting are the apparent failures of the French social system: police failed to protect the children from nearly three years of abuse, and did not act when social workers warned of possible pedophilia. And France's prisons could not apparently rehabilitate those accused men who had already served time for pedophilia; they resumed their crimes after they were released on probation. "This is a national problem," says Mathieu Garnier, director of the president's office for the local Maine and Loire council. "All French society needs new systems to be more efficient and new means to treat people sentenced for sexual crimes."
The details of the abuse are horrifying enough, and the tales of mothers as pimps and sexual assailants are especially disturbing. Thirteen of the women on trial are charged with raping boys under 15 and organizing child prostitution. "In France, a woman is always thought of as a mother, so it's almost impossible to think of her sexually assaulting children," says attorney Monika Pasquini, who is defending one of the women on trial. As the revelations have unfolded in Angers' newspapers, the townsfolk have absorbed the shock quietly. "For the moment, there is little feeling of scandal, but that could emerge as the trial goes on," says Yves Durand, a local journalist.
In a courtroom specially constructed for the trial at a cost of about €1 million, the accused sit silently listening as witnesses and prosecutors recount how some of the women helped their husbands organize a steady flow of customers to have sex with their daughters, sons, nieces and nephews. In their defense, many of the women have testified that they, too, were victims of incest, abused as children by alcohol-soaked men at home. Marine V.'s mother Patricia claims she was raped as a small girl by the man who acted as her father at home. Veronique R., 42, who allegedly traded her young son for sex, said she left home at 14 after being assaulted and beaten by her brothers and alcoholic father. "What are the qualities of a good mother?" a judge asked her. "To protect her son," Veronique mumbled, choking on tears.