Angers, France
Thirty-nine men and 27 women stood accused of sexually abusing their own and one another’s children this week, in the largest criminal trial in French history. The 45 victims, boys and girls ranging in age from infancy to 14, were allegedly molested in the Loire Valley town of Angers between 1999 and 2002. Prosecutors say one little girl, age 7, was raped by her father and grandfather repeatedly, as well as by at least 20 neighbors who paid her parents for access to her. “My kids, I don’t love them,” her grandfather said on the stand. “I didn’t give a damn.” Other defendants said they themselves had been raped as children. The trial is expected to last for four months.
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