Paedocriminals travelling hundreds of kilometres to inflict abuse and rape on very young children, including babies, victims targeted in a suspect's professional environment, suspected chemical subjection, sexual ‘orgies’ filmed and broadcast on the Darknet...
These abominable scenarios could feed conspiracy fantasies. And yet they are the reality of a very sordid criminal case that has left police officers and magistrates dumbfounded for several months.
Victims sometimes very young
According to our information, an unprecedented type of paedophile crime ring, which was involved in child sex trafficking, has just been identified as part of a vast investigation by the Office for Minors (Ofmin), which began in the Loire-Atlantique region and stretched as far as Belgium. A judicial investigation is underway at the judicial court in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) for a litany of particularly serious offences: rape of minors, acts of torture and barbarism against minors, human trafficking, etc. All in an organised gang.
Three suspects have already been identified, indicted and imprisoned between late September 2024 and early February. And on Tuesday, two new suspects were arrested by Ofmin investigators in France and Belgium. These two operations put an end to the activities of this ring of criminal perverts. Antoine Leroy, the public prosecutor in Nantes, did not wish to comment at this stage on this extremely serious case.
This criminal network was identified after photos and videos showing the rape and abuse of infants, and even very young children, were posted on the Darknet, the clandestine part of the Internet popular with paedophiles, in the second half of 2024.
A childcare professional identified
These nauseating images have sent alarm bells ringing among specialist police services across Europe and around the world, who analysed them and deduced that the content is authentic and recent. At first glance, however, there was nothing to pinpoint the location of these appalling acts, or even the country. But thanks to the experience of its police officers and unprecedented image analysis techniques, Ofmin, a new criminal investigation department created in 2023 to combat paedophile crime, directed suspicions towards France. Through successive cross-checks, the investigators eventually identified a childcare professional living in the Nantes region (Loire-Atlantique). A certain Pierre-Alain C., 32, a family assistant.
Previously under the radar, this man, unknown for paedophile crimes, was arrested at the end of September 2024 as he was trying to flee to Tunisia. On the basis of videos of the abuse, the investigators suspected him of sexually abusing a disabled 4-year-old girl placed in his home by the Loire-Atlantique Child Welfare Agency. They also suspected him of inflicting ‘exceptionally violent’ abuse on the little girl, who had been in his care since December 2023.
The family assistant, who had also been nominated by La France insoumise (LFI) [far-left] for the 2021 departmental elections, has been indicted and imprisoned. While in police custody, this man, the father of a 4-year-old child in his care, admitted that he had been plagued by paedophile impulses for several years.
Pandora's box
But in this Pandora's box of a case, the investigators have not seen the last of their surprises. And they embark on a journey into the depths of human darkness. Thanks to the search operations, they discovered that Pierre-Alain C. was not content with sexually abusing the little girl. He was also suspected of being the organiser of a vast paedophile ring. He is also suspected of having delivered the very young children entrusted to his care over the last few years to the mercy of accomplices from all over France and even abroad, for sexual meetings arranged in advance by encrypted means of communication. These men knew no moral boundaries and were prepared to travel several hundred kilometres to satisfy their collective dark urges.
During these group sessions at Pierre-Alain C.'s home, the children were abused, raped, filmed and staged ad nauseam. The lethargic state of some of them even raised a strong suspicion of chemical submission, as did other material evidence.
How many victims?
At this stage of the investigations, at least four young victims, all aged under 5, have been identified. There was the disabled 4-year-old girl, but there were also even younger children and, the height of sordidness, even babies. But how many more victims? Probably more. Investigations are underway into possible sexual encounters prior to the second half of 2024.
And the background of this family assistant will come under particular scrutiny. According to a source close to the investigation, Pierre-Alain C. presents ‘a terrifying and very worrying profile’, capable of duplicity and concealment. The police are wondering whether his criminal career did not begin much earlier, at the age of 17, when he was working as a baby-sitter...
In the course of their investigations, Ofmin investigators identified five members of this paedophile ‘club’, including the family assistant. On 4 February, Pierre-Alain C. was released from prison and taken into custody again, along with two other French participants in the ‘sexual orgies’. This first operation led to a new round-up on Tuesday, with two new arrests. And while the ringleader of the organisation was not known to have committed any paedophile offences - prior to his arrest on 21 September - one of the suspects is known to have committed extremely serious offences in Belgium: he has been convicted of murder and rape of minors.
Arrested on Tuesday under a European arrest warrant, the suspect refused to be questioned in France. He has been remanded in custody in his home country and is due to be extradited to face the examining magistrate. As for the last suspect arrested in France, he was due to be released from police custody on Friday before being brought before the investigating magistrate on Monday. In the meantime, he should be detained.
The five suspects, some of whom deny the charges against them despite the sometimes overwhelming evidence against them, all face life imprisonment.
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-div...nce-21-02-2025-2Q5MXFYRHVF65BLTCGHCOQHX7I.php (Archive)
Community activist by day, paedophile criminal by night: the appalling double face of Pierre-Alain Cottineau
An impeccable social façade, an outwardly tolerant personality and, at the same time, a personal history marked, perhaps for the last fifteen years, by extremely serious paedophile impulses. Pierre-Alain Cottineau, a 32-year-old family assistant, represents a rare model of dissociation or concealment for the magistrates of the criminal investigation unit in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) and the specialist police officers of the Ofmin (Office des mineurs).
Until last September, this separated father was known in Nantes community circles as president of the Esprit Arc-en-ciel [Rainbow Spirit] association. In this capacity, he was involved in defending the rights of LGBT+ people and organised the first Gay Pride in Ancenis in 2022. He was also involved in the fight against domestic violence and stood in the 2021 departmental elections on the France Insoumise (LFI) ticket. At the end of 2023, this home-based carer and former volunteer first-aider for the Red Cross, obtained approval for the Centre Départemental Enfances Familles (CDEF) in Loire-Atlantique, a structure responsible for the emergency care of children aged 0 to 18.
At the heart of the darknet network
It was in this context that Pierre-Alain Cottineau, who remains presumed innocent, took in several children at his home in Oudon, around thirty kilometres north-east of Nantes, sometimes for very short periods, sometimes for much longer stays. In particular, he was responsible for a severely handicapped child who benefited from a very special medical bed.
It was thanks in particular to this detail, observed on a video posted by Pierre-Alain Cottineau on an encrypted messaging service, that Ofmin police officers were able to trace him. The 30-year-old is suspected of having filmed the rape and abuse he allegedly inflicted on the child. Before distributing these images on loops popular with international paedophiles. At the end of September, he was charged with rape with acts of torture or barbarism, placed in pre-trial detention... and struck off the list of LFI activists. (…)
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-div...eau-22-02-2025-HFB5Q24QA5G7DGFXONR2S5LU5Q.php (Archive)
Pierre-Alain Cottineau.
These abominable scenarios could feed conspiracy fantasies. And yet they are the reality of a very sordid criminal case that has left police officers and magistrates dumbfounded for several months.
Victims sometimes very young
According to our information, an unprecedented type of paedophile crime ring, which was involved in child sex trafficking, has just been identified as part of a vast investigation by the Office for Minors (Ofmin), which began in the Loire-Atlantique region and stretched as far as Belgium. A judicial investigation is underway at the judicial court in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) for a litany of particularly serious offences: rape of minors, acts of torture and barbarism against minors, human trafficking, etc. All in an organised gang.
Three suspects have already been identified, indicted and imprisoned between late September 2024 and early February. And on Tuesday, two new suspects were arrested by Ofmin investigators in France and Belgium. These two operations put an end to the activities of this ring of criminal perverts. Antoine Leroy, the public prosecutor in Nantes, did not wish to comment at this stage on this extremely serious case.
This criminal network was identified after photos and videos showing the rape and abuse of infants, and even very young children, were posted on the Darknet, the clandestine part of the Internet popular with paedophiles, in the second half of 2024.
A childcare professional identified
These nauseating images have sent alarm bells ringing among specialist police services across Europe and around the world, who analysed them and deduced that the content is authentic and recent. At first glance, however, there was nothing to pinpoint the location of these appalling acts, or even the country. But thanks to the experience of its police officers and unprecedented image analysis techniques, Ofmin, a new criminal investigation department created in 2023 to combat paedophile crime, directed suspicions towards France. Through successive cross-checks, the investigators eventually identified a childcare professional living in the Nantes region (Loire-Atlantique). A certain Pierre-Alain C., 32, a family assistant.
Previously under the radar, this man, unknown for paedophile crimes, was arrested at the end of September 2024 as he was trying to flee to Tunisia. On the basis of videos of the abuse, the investigators suspected him of sexually abusing a disabled 4-year-old girl placed in his home by the Loire-Atlantique Child Welfare Agency. They also suspected him of inflicting ‘exceptionally violent’ abuse on the little girl, who had been in his care since December 2023.
The family assistant, who had also been nominated by La France insoumise (LFI) [far-left] for the 2021 departmental elections, has been indicted and imprisoned. While in police custody, this man, the father of a 4-year-old child in his care, admitted that he had been plagued by paedophile impulses for several years.
Pandora's box
But in this Pandora's box of a case, the investigators have not seen the last of their surprises. And they embark on a journey into the depths of human darkness. Thanks to the search operations, they discovered that Pierre-Alain C. was not content with sexually abusing the little girl. He was also suspected of being the organiser of a vast paedophile ring. He is also suspected of having delivered the very young children entrusted to his care over the last few years to the mercy of accomplices from all over France and even abroad, for sexual meetings arranged in advance by encrypted means of communication. These men knew no moral boundaries and were prepared to travel several hundred kilometres to satisfy their collective dark urges.
During these group sessions at Pierre-Alain C.'s home, the children were abused, raped, filmed and staged ad nauseam. The lethargic state of some of them even raised a strong suspicion of chemical submission, as did other material evidence.
How many victims?
At this stage of the investigations, at least four young victims, all aged under 5, have been identified. There was the disabled 4-year-old girl, but there were also even younger children and, the height of sordidness, even babies. But how many more victims? Probably more. Investigations are underway into possible sexual encounters prior to the second half of 2024.
And the background of this family assistant will come under particular scrutiny. According to a source close to the investigation, Pierre-Alain C. presents ‘a terrifying and very worrying profile’, capable of duplicity and concealment. The police are wondering whether his criminal career did not begin much earlier, at the age of 17, when he was working as a baby-sitter...
In the course of their investigations, Ofmin investigators identified five members of this paedophile ‘club’, including the family assistant. On 4 February, Pierre-Alain C. was released from prison and taken into custody again, along with two other French participants in the ‘sexual orgies’. This first operation led to a new round-up on Tuesday, with two new arrests. And while the ringleader of the organisation was not known to have committed any paedophile offences - prior to his arrest on 21 September - one of the suspects is known to have committed extremely serious offences in Belgium: he has been convicted of murder and rape of minors.
Arrested on Tuesday under a European arrest warrant, the suspect refused to be questioned in France. He has been remanded in custody in his home country and is due to be extradited to face the examining magistrate. As for the last suspect arrested in France, he was due to be released from police custody on Friday before being brought before the investigating magistrate on Monday. In the meantime, he should be detained.
The five suspects, some of whom deny the charges against them despite the sometimes overwhelming evidence against them, all face life imprisonment.
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-div...nce-21-02-2025-2Q5MXFYRHVF65BLTCGHCOQHX7I.php (Archive)
Community activist by day, paedophile criminal by night: the appalling double face of Pierre-Alain Cottineau
An impeccable social façade, an outwardly tolerant personality and, at the same time, a personal history marked, perhaps for the last fifteen years, by extremely serious paedophile impulses. Pierre-Alain Cottineau, a 32-year-old family assistant, represents a rare model of dissociation or concealment for the magistrates of the criminal investigation unit in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) and the specialist police officers of the Ofmin (Office des mineurs).
Until last September, this separated father was known in Nantes community circles as president of the Esprit Arc-en-ciel [Rainbow Spirit] association. In this capacity, he was involved in defending the rights of LGBT+ people and organised the first Gay Pride in Ancenis in 2022. He was also involved in the fight against domestic violence and stood in the 2021 departmental elections on the France Insoumise (LFI) ticket. At the end of 2023, this home-based carer and former volunteer first-aider for the Red Cross, obtained approval for the Centre Départemental Enfances Familles (CDEF) in Loire-Atlantique, a structure responsible for the emergency care of children aged 0 to 18.
At the heart of the darknet network
It was in this context that Pierre-Alain Cottineau, who remains presumed innocent, took in several children at his home in Oudon, around thirty kilometres north-east of Nantes, sometimes for very short periods, sometimes for much longer stays. In particular, he was responsible for a severely handicapped child who benefited from a very special medical bed.
It was thanks in particular to this detail, observed on a video posted by Pierre-Alain Cottineau on an encrypted messaging service, that Ofmin police officers were able to trace him. The 30-year-old is suspected of having filmed the rape and abuse he allegedly inflicted on the child. Before distributing these images on loops popular with international paedophiles. At the end of September, he was charged with rape with acts of torture or barbarism, placed in pre-trial detention... and struck off the list of LFI activists. (…)
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-div...eau-22-02-2025-HFB5Q24QA5G7DGFXONR2S5LU5Q.php (Archive)
Pierre-Alain Cottineau.
