US EditionFrance Investigates Reappearance of Website Tied to Pelicot Crimes
French prosecutors are examining whether the relaunched platform enabled sexual abuse and child exploitation, after authorities linked the original site to more than 23,000 cases.
- 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.
41 Articles
41 Articles
The website used by Gisèle Pelicot's ex-husband to recruit men to rape her is back online under a new name. Separately from the Pelicot case, the platform was also linked to other cases involving child abuse and murder, among other things. The Paris public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into how this could have happened.
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
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