Ex-magician charged with raping 27 children

A 36-year-old former magician is on trial for rape and sexual assault on nearly 30 children, aged 3 to 15, before the Assize Court of Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany.

A former amateur magician is accused of rapes and sexual assaults on nearly thirty children, all between the ages of 3 and 15 , for more than ten years, between 2006 and 2017 . The 36-year-old man will appear before the Assize Court of Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany from September 30. The trial is expected to last three weeks and will take place behind closed doors. The verdict is due on October 21.

What are the charges?

The magician faces several counts, 'incestuous rape', 'rape of a 15-year-old minor', ' sexual assault 'and minor corruptions' . The man is suspected of assaulting 27 children, aged 3 to 15. The majority of the alleged facts would have taken place in Brittany but he would also have acted in Normandy, Deux-Sèvres and Switzerland and in most cases, the attacks would have taken place in the homes of the parents of the victims.

When he himself was a minor, the accused would have sexually assaulted a cousin and a half-sister, if we are to believe their testimony. In 2006, the accused would have launched his magic activity as a self-entrepreneur in order to get closer to the children around him. According to a source familiar with the matter, thanks to his work, the man could' create privileged relationships ' with his victims minors. Me Gwendoline Tenier, the lawyer for a mother whose daughter was assaulted, explains that it was a ' kind of modus operandi '. Even for the parents, the accused was thus perceived as ' the friend of the family, the good uncle who looks after the children ', a person ' very cheerful, open-minded '.

The man recognizes a lot of the facts

Some victims were 3 to 5 years old at the time of the alleged sexual assaults and suffered severe psychological consequences while growing up . Whereas the parents themselves must live' with the guilt of not having seen anything “, as described by Me Tenier to AFP.

The case only broke out in 2017, although the first complaints were filed in 2014, when the former magician wanted to confide in one of the mothers of his victims ' have done something ' to his child. The man was then placed in police custody, then in pre-trial detention in December of the same year when he admitted a lot of the facts .

What are the penalties incurred?

The accused has already received a ten-month suspended prison sentence with a ban on appearing with minors after having assaulted a girl he had met in a leisure center in 2011. In October, he will therefore be tried as a repeat offender for the rape and sexual assault of these 27 children and he faces up to 20 years in prison. The trial opens with nearly thirty civil parties.