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Ex-French spy arrested on suspicion of ordering child rapes in Kenya
Former French spy arrested in eastern France on suspicion of ordering child rapes in Africa, particularly in Kenya.
A former French spy has been arrested in eastern France on suspicion of ordering child rapes in Africa, particularly in Kenya.
The man was put in custody last Friday, Strasbourg public prosecutor Clarisse Taron said.
According to the daily newspaper Le Parisien, which first reported the case, the 58-year-old retired military man was charged with 'aggravated human trafficking', 'rape and sexual assault of minors', and 'capture, import, and dissemination of a pornographic image of a minor'.
The newspaper said that he is suspected of ordering the rape of children in Africa, particularly in Kenya, “where he travelled for work, and of paying for and orchestrating sexual abuse from a distance, filming the scenes and then watching them to satisfy his criminal urges”.
He was caught after French authorities were notified by a US-based nonprofit that fights child sex crimes after they discovered his tapes online.
Increased cases
In recent years, there has been a notable increase in live-streamed child abuse, where clients, often from Western countries, pay to exploit children, particularly those from vulnerable families sexually.
These scenes are either streamed live or recorded for viewing online, with other malicious customers occasionally paying to access them.
Last month, French authorities detained a 55-year-old French man on suspicion of committing online paedophilia in Colombia.
A few weeks ago, a Kenyan couple was arrested for attempting to sell their children on an online dating site for similar exploitation.
They were arrested in Mombasa following a tip-off from detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in Changamwe and the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU).
