Air Force Sergeant Convicted of Pimping

The 26-year-old man had set up a local network exploiting nine young women. He was sentenced on Thursday by the Orléans criminal court to 18 months in prison.

An air force sergeant, assigned to the 123 Orléans-Bricy air base (Loiret), was sentenced to three years in prison, 18 months of which were firm, for “aggravated pimping”, reports France Bleu Orléans, which attended the trial at the Orléans criminal court on Thursday, August 1. The 26-year-old man had set up a local network exploiting nine young women.

Before the judges, the defendant explained that it was by chance that he set up this local network: a prostitute of whom he was a regular client asked him if he could not accommodate her. “Afterwards, he says, She brought some acquaintances to her, and that’s how it started.” In less than two years, between June 2020 and November 2021, the soldier made a real career out of it by recruiting young women himself. Among them, one of his partners with whom he sometimes got violent. In total, the police estimate that he received 53,000 euros by exploiting at least nine young women. A source of income that was not essential to him, but he explained to the president of the court that he realized he loved “spending on going out, on clothes, on consuming cannabis too”.

“All the women who worked [pour le militaire] were particularly young […] and all were in a situation of great vulnerability.”

Me Laure Massiera, lawyer for three victims

France Blue Orleans

This criminal activity ended when one of her colleagues from the 123 Orléans-Bricy air base alerted her superiors. Shortly before, the soldier had offered her the chance to prostitute herself, explaining that he had his “entries” in this environment when she had confessed to him that she was having financial difficulties. The army launched an internal investigation and then took the matter to court.

The lawyer for three victims, Me Laure Massiera, stressed to the judges that “all the women who worked” for the military “were particularly young, one was only 16, another 17, and all were in a situation of great vulnerability, having broken down with their family, or leaving child welfare, or being on the streets…”

The defense lawyer, Me Matthieu Mhamdi, focused his argument on the terrible “gear” into which the soldier, adopted at the age of 12, fell. He also stressed that his client’s record was clean.

In addition to his sentence of three years in prison, 18 months of which were served, the soldier who joined the Air Force in 2018, was promoted to sergeant in 2022 and was assigned to the Bricy base. He was also banned from owning a weapon for five years. He was immediately imprisoned.