The founder of the anonymous chat site that Dominique Pelicot used to recruit men to rape his unconscious wife has been arrested in France. Isaac Steidl, 44, was called in by French authorities for questioning over claims his site, Coco.
The site was free and used a simple interface, allowing users to communicate anonymously, quickly turning it into a 'den of predators'. Pelicot, 72, who was jailed for two decades on Thursday, used the shut-down forum to source many of men who would go on to rape his drugged wife, Gisele, in their family home. The three-month trial heard how Pelicot, dubbed the Monster of Avignon, plied his wife with hidden tranquilisers in her food and drink so he could covertly film the abuse.
In the end, he had catalogued more than 20, videos of the brutal sex crimes carried out at their Mazan, Avignon, home over the span of a decade. But at the heart of of the case was the anonymous chat site, Coco, which was founded in by Steidl. Dominique Pelicot, 72, who was jailed for two decades on Thursday, used the shut-down site Coco to source many of men who would go on to rape his drugged wife, Gisele, in their family home.
Gisele Pelicot leaves the courthouse after hearing the verdict of the court that sentenced her ex-husband to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and orchestrating her mass rapes with dozens of strangers he recruited online, in Avignon on December 19, At its peak, it had some , monthly visitors, none of whom went through vetting. This included children, and earlier this year a journalist posed as a year-old to highlight the ease with which youngsters are able to access the site and can fall prey to paedophiles.
In just five days, the undercover reporter said they received some fifty photos and videos from webcams of men masturbating, offers for prostitution and seven requests from adults to meet in person. Judges during the Pelicot trial heard that he had made contact with several men on the site, notably on a chat forum named 'a son insu', translating to 'without her knowing'.
