France investigates reappearance of website linked to Pelicot…

French prosecutors have launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website known for facilitating the crimes of Dominique Pelicot, who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his wife Gisèle Pelicot. Its precursor, Coco.gg, was an unmoderated platform offering registration-free access to chatrooms with French authorities linking it to sexual abuse of children, drug offences, rape and murder. Since early April, at least two similarly named websites with a near identical designs to the original Coco platform reappeared online.

Sarah El Haïry, high commissioner for childhood in France, said the reappearance of the Coco platform amounted to a "collective failure in the face of one of the most serious forms of violence: child sexual abuse." Websites like Coco "exploit every loophole, they seek out prey, and that prey is children," El Haïry said. Coco.gg became infamous during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who in 2024 was found guilty of drugging and raping his wife Gisèle for over a decade and recruiting more than 50 strangers online to come rape her too. During a four month-long trial, dozens of men testified about meeting Pelicot on a Coco chatroom called "Without her knowledge", where men shared photos and videos of women taken surreptitiously.

Source: BBC World