The case has shaken the porn industry for two years. Three actors and a director were arrested on Tuesday, September 27, in the investigation into the “French Bukkake” pornographic video platform. They were placed in police custody as part of the judicial investigation opened in October 2020 for “aggravated human trafficking, gang rape or aggravated pimping”, learned franceinfo from a source familiar with the matter. The program “Complément d’Enquête”, broadcast Thursday, September 29 on France 2, was able to collect the exclusive testimony of civil parties.
While a Senate report calls on the authorities to better regulate this industry “predatory”, “generating systemic violence against women”franceinfo summarizes what we know about this case.
A platform that allowed customers to participate in filming
As reported by the Paris prosecutor’s office to the senatorial delegation responsible for investigating abuses in this environment, it all started when a gendarmerie service spotted that the French Bukkake site, named after a sexual practice, “offered a paid subscription allowing certain customers” “to participate in the shooting of pornographic films, and therefore to have sexual relations”. Enough to feed suspicions of pimping.
A preliminary investigation was quickly opened and entrusted to the F3 section of the Paris prosecutor’s office. It lasted eight months, during which a gendarme notably cyber-infiltrated to verify that the site was indeed offering its subscribers participation in these collective ejaculation sessions, with places reserved for sessions without condoms. Confirmation made, a judicial investigation was opened in October 2020 for “pimping, trafficking in human beings and rape”.
Twelve indictments and around forty civil parties
Since the start of the investigations, 46 people have joined as civil parties, as well as associations. Twelve men – actors, directors, producers – are prosecuted in this case, exceptional in its scope. The vast majority of them are incarcerated. Among them, the producers nicknamed “Pascal OP” and “Mat Hadix”, very well known in the porn world who plays with the image of amateurism. The investigation should still last several more months, before the possible holding of a trial at the assizes.
A recruitment method targeting the same profile of women
The qualification of “trafficking in human beings” was retained because, as explained to the senators the deputy prosecutor at the Paris public prosecutor’s office, Hélène Collet, “a system for recruiting participants for filming had been put in place” and “a particular targeted profile: young women, experiencing social, economic or family difficulties”. “I needed this money right away. I had to pay my bills and my rent or I would lose my apartment”testified one of them before the delegation.
To find “actresses”, a tout, pretending to be an escort nicknamed “Axelle”, managed to convince these women he met on the internet to prostitute themselves. This tout then turned into a client and obtained from them a sexual service aimed at removing their reluctance to paid sex. After leaving them without pay, “Axelle” contacted them again to suggest a new way to bail them out, via high-paying porn videos supposed to be aimed at the Canadian market.
Scenes of verbal, physical, sexual and psychological violence
As the Senate report explains, once their recruitment has been completed, “all the victims describe the same scenes of verbal, physical, sexual and psychological violence: imposed sexual practices, forced intercourse with a number of partners to which they had not consented”such as anal penetrations or multiple simultaneous penetrations. “The viewing of certain films broadcast on the platforms and the hearing of participants revealed that their consent may not be respected”, summarized the magistrate Hélène Collet during her hearing, hence the qualification of “rape”. Two civil parties confirm to “Complément d’Enquête” that they have verbally opposed sexual practices that were imposed on them.
Another woman explained to the senators that she had been sequestered in a house in Normandy, had suffered “several rape scenes” and to have “had to eat the same food given to the producer’s dogs”.
“From the start, they tried to dehumanize me, to treat me like an object. Yet, I did, I ate the dog’s food. I had no self-esteem anymore.”
A civil party in the French Bukkake casebefore the senators
Videos broadcast in France without the consent of women
According to the civil parties heard by the senators, the producers had assured them that the scenes filmed were “for private” Where “not broadcast in France”. The videos ended up on websites accessible from France, turning their lives upside down. “From there, the lynching began. (…) I was harassed downstairs, I received threatening letters”said one of them.
Once online and duplicated on broadcast platforms, the videos are almost impossible to remove, preventing the actresses from exercising their “right to be forgotten”. The producers demanded from the women between 3,000 and 5,000 euros for a withdrawal from the video. That is ten times more than the remuneration obtained for the scene shot. Another was even offered by one of the French Bukkake producers of “to become his sex slave for life” Where “to work in brothels in Brussels for a lifetime annuity”.
In their recommendations, the senators believe that it is necessary “impose fines on broadcasters, platforms such as social networks, for any dissemination of illegal content”.