France probes return of adult website linked to mass rape
This court-sketch made on December 19, 2024 in Avignon shows Dominique Pelicot (L) during the hearing of the verdict of the court that sentenced him to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and orchestrating the mass rapes of his ex-wife Gisele Pelicot with dozens of strangers he recruited online. (Photo: AFP/Benoit Peyrucq)
PARIS: France has launched a probe into the reappearance of a website that enabled sex criminal Dominique Pelicot to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, prosecutors said on Tuesday (Apr 28).
Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024.
"The Paris public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the website's reopening," it told AFP.
The website, now operating under the name Cocoland and featuring a coconut-themed backdrop, was accessible on Tuesday.
France's commissioner for children, Sarah el Hairy, raised the alarm in mid-April.
"The reopening of the Coco site is a real slap in the face to the promise of protection we've made," she told broadcaster RMC at the time.
Such websites "exploit every loophole, they seek out prey, and that prey is children," she said.
"We will track them down, we will hound them, we will give them no respite."
Prior to the platform's re-emergence, the investigation into the Coco platform was "well advanced", according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Isaac Steidl, the founder and manager of the Coco website, was in January 2025 charged with complicity in drug trafficking, possession and distribution of child pornography, corruption of a minor via the internet, and criminal conspiracy. He denies the charges.
His lawyer Julien Zanatta said he had "nothing to do" with the new website.
The platform has been at the centre of several criminal cases, including the high-profile rape trial.
Dominique Pelicot was sentenced in 2024 to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape, after he recruited dozens of strangers to rape his then-wife Gisele after drugging her in their home between 2011 and 2020.
He spoke to potential attackers on the website's chatroom called "A son insu" (literally, "Without his/her knowledge").
