Already indicted in 2025 for rape of young boys, a 40-year-old man was again indicted in April after the identification of new victims, bringing their total to 34 children aged three to nine years old, the Villefranche-sur-Saône prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. The suspect targeted boys attending the same school as his children.

Published on: 04/30/2026 - 05:37 Modified on: 04/30/2026 - 08:03

A man already indicted in 2025 for rape of young boys in a village in Beaujolais, near Lyon, was indicted again in April after the discovery of other victims, 34 in total, aged three to nine years old, the Villefranche-sur-Saône prosecutor's office said on Wednesday April 29, confirming information from Le Monde.

The suspect, aged 40, was indicted in April on charges of rape and sexual assault of minors under the age of 15, and fixation and possession of pornographic images of minors, prosecutor Laetitia Francart told AFP.

This father had already been indicted in January 2025 for the same charges, and his supplementary indictment in April "targets additional victims", added Laetitia Francart, specifying that, in this case, there are now 34 of them. "All minors are not victims of the same offenses", she also underlined.

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The events took place between 2020 and 2024 in the village of Lucenay, in the heart of Beaujolais, around thirty kilometers north of Lyon.

A camera hidden in an alarm clock

The man targeted boys attending the same school as his son and daughter, from kindergarten to elementary school, for example on the occasion of birthdays or sleepovers organized at his home, specifies the daily Le Monde.

He also made numerous videos and photos (nearly 330) of the rapes and sexual assaults committed on these children, awake or asleep, aged between 3 and 9 years old at the time of the events. To do this, he used his phone or a small camera hidden in an alarm clock, says the newspaper.

But when some children began to speak to their parents about the actions of the forty-year-old, complaints ended up being filed. The man was arrested and taken into police custody in December 2024.

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He will then be released and will write a letter expressing his intention to commit suicide, addressed to his children, his loved ones, and to the families and child victims. "I think I was born like that, I didn't choose to like boys... boys who were too young (...). I hated myself for that, but I didn't have the strength to talk about it", he relates in particular, according to Le Monde.

He then tried to hang himself from an oak tree in the Charnay forest, in the Rhône, but was recovered alive by the gendarmes.

During his hearings, indicates the daily, he admitted the facts about “around thirty children”. He has been in pre-trial detention for more than a year.

With AFP

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