US EditionFrance Investigates Reappearance of Website Tied to Pelicot Crimes
- French authorities launched an investigation into the website Coco, now operating as Cocoland, after it resurfaced on Tuesday with a coconut-themed backdrop following its 2024 closure.
- The site previously enabled Dominique Pelicot to recruit strangers to rape his wife, Gisele, between 2011 and 2020; authorities linked the French-language platform to sexual abuse of children, rape, and murder.
- Isaac Steidl, the site's founder, faces charges including complicity in drug trafficking and child pornography distribution; his lawyer, Julien Zanatta, claimed Steidl had "nothing to do" with the new website.
- The Paris public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into the website's reopening, while activist Caroline Darian and Sarah denounced the return as a "real slap in the face" to protection promises.
- Women's rights groups urged authorities to broaden probes into similar "Rape Academy" platforms identified by CNN, as an investigation into the original Coco platform was "well advanced" prior to its re-emergence.
28 Articles
28 Articles
Coco is registered outside France and was shut down by the French authorities in 2024. The platform is back online under the name Cocoland.
The Paris Public Prosecutor's Office has ordered the opening of an investigation after the reappearance of the Coco website, closed by the courts in June 2024 for having facilitated sexual assaults on minors, rape and drug trafficking. This platform, renamed Cocoland, is known because it was where Dominique Pelicot recruited more than half a hundred men to rape his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, while she was unconscious. Continue reading
The Coco site resurfaced under the name Cocoland despite its closure in 2024. An investigation by the gendarmerie was opened, while 23,051 procedures had already targeted the initial platform.
Sarah el Haïry announced this Wednesday that he had seized the prosecutor of the Republic, as well as the platforms Pharos and the Arcom, concerning the sites Chaat.fr and the boy.net, accused of allowing the linking of pedocriminals with minors.
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