what we know about the unprecedented operation which resulted in 80 arrests in France

The suspects arrested are between 30 and over 60 years old. “It goes from the local elected official to the unemployed, including the engineer,” according to Commissioner Quentin Bevan.

A “big crackdown against child crime”greeted Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, Friday December 8, on the social network. Over the past few days, 80 men suspected of child abuse have been arrested across the country. A large-scale operation “never seen” in France, according to Commissioner Quentin Bevan, head of the operational center of the new Juvenile Office (Ofmin) of the judicial police, who coordinated the investigation. All those involved admitted the facts during their custody, even if some tried to downplay or exonerate themselves. “Investigations are still ongoing,” said Gérald Darmanin. Franceinfo takes a look at what we know about this unprecedented operation.

Arrests in 53 departments

These 80 arrests took place in no less than 53 departments, including two overseas, Quentin Bevan explained to AFP. When the police and gendarmes arrived, some of the suspects were downloading child criminal content. Others tried to break their computers “with a hammer”.

The suspects were placed in police custody for “possession, consultation, dissemination and sharing of child abuse images”, then 51 of them were presented to a judge. Among them, 13 people were imprisoned: some men were sentenced to prison upon immediate appearance and others were placed in pre-trial detention pending their trial. The others, 38 suspects, were placed under judicial supervision.

Other police custody has also been lifted, pending the use of digital media. Among the people arrested, several have already been suspected in the past, or are currently implicated in child crime cases, according to the report of the operation, consulted by TF1. “Six individuals revealed a particularly worrying profile,” according to the document.

Men from all walks of life

“In child crime, there is no typical profile, we find all socio-professional categories”, underlines Quentin Bevan. The 80 suspects arrested are between 30 and over 60 years old and “this goes from the local elected official to the unemployed, including the engineer”specifies the head of the Ofmin operational division.

The police sought to target profiles in regular contact with children. Two school teachers, sports coaches and even a supervisor in a home for children with disabilities were arrested.

“These are not individuals who had direct contact with each other, but they exchanged child abuse images on the same platforms,” Quentin Bevan told TF1.

“Extremely violent” content found

In several suspects, “more than 100,000” Child criminal content, photos and videos were found during the searches. According to Quentin Bevan, these images were stored on computers, hard drives or other digital media. The commissioner describes the contents to AFP “extremely violent” which he describes as“filthy of the filthy”. He cites in particular “sexual acts committed against infants, or children sexually abused with animals”.

“We focus on the most dangerous profiles, that is to say people who stand out by the volume of their downloads, this can go up to several thousand files, or by the sensitivity and seriousness of the content downloaded”, explains Gabrielle Hazan, the director of Ofmin, in The Parisian. “Every year in France, several hundred thousand Internet users view and exchange content of a child-criminal nature.she recalls.

Suspects accused of sexual violence

Among the 80 men arrested, one “ten” are suspected of rape of minors or sexual assault, according to Ofmin. One of the arrested teachers is accused of having sexually assaulted at least one student and had possessions in his home. “stolen photos and videos of his students with sexual connotations”. “He had sexualized these images”, describes Quentin Bevan. The supervisor in a home for children with disabilities was convicted of rape “several decades ago”. He was able to work with children again after a change of identity.

The Ofmin commissioner underlines these links between possession or consultation of child criminal content and sexual violence. “We often observe this rise in power, they view more and more images, more and more violent, with children being abused at younger and younger ages, and this is what will intoxicate them”he explains to France 2. “HAS a certain moment in their pedophile journey, [cela] will push them to make attempts or actual acts on children.”

“Thousands” of child victims

“Behind these images, it is not artificial, they are children, that is to say thousands of children victims of rape, acts of torture and barbarity,” notes Martine Brousse, co-founder and president of the association La Voix de l’enfant, to France 2. “Behind these crimes, there are children traumatized, not only by the crimes but by the sharing of these images. We must therefore be able to detect them, be able to save children and arrest even more predators”also defends Mié Kohiyama, co-founder of the Be Brave France association, on franceinfo. “All the two seconds, we have an image or video of this type which is reported, it is exponential crime.”