France accuses the founder of the notorious website used in the Bellicot rape case

The founder of the website that Dominique Bellicot used to invite dozens of men to rape his wife after he drugged her, was indicted Thursday in France on myriad charges, including some related to the case.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 7.5 million euros, or about $7.7 million.

The site’s founder, Isaac Steidel, 44, was released from prison on Thursday. The investigating judge’s office said he was placed under “judicial control”, paid bail of 100,000 euros, and was banned from leaving France.

The website he created in 2003, called coco.fr, became notorious in France during the trial of Mr. Bellicot and 50 other men, all of whom were He was convicted last monthmostly due to the rape of Mr. Bellicot’s ex-wife, Giselle, while she was heavily sedated.

One of the charges against Mr. Steidle linked to the Bellicot case is operating an online platform to enable an illicit transaction by an organized gang. Other charges he faces include complicity in drug trafficking, complicity in the possession and distribution of child pornography, aggravated pimping, and money laundering.

His lawyer, Julian Zanatta, told AFP that Mr. Steidl “strongly denies the accusations against him and pledges full cooperation to prove his non-responsibility for the alleged crimes.”

During the trial, Mr Bellicott said he met all the men in a private chat room on a website called “Without Her Knowing”. Most of the accused denied ever seeing that chat room.

But they agreed they met him on the website, then transferred the conversation to text or Skype to arrange a visit to the Bellicot family home in southern France, where they joined him in raping his ex-wife while she was deeply drugged.

The website was involved in more than 23,000 cases in France alone in the period from 2021 to 2024, involving 480 alleged victims, Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Bequiau said in a statement. The cases included allegations of child sexual abuse, pimping, prostitution, rape, drug trafficking, fraud and murder, police and prosecutors said in a statement.

The site was shut down in June after an 18-month investigation that spanned all of Europe. The Paris prosecutor said at the time that police froze bank accounts in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands and confiscated five million euros.

The prosecutor’s office said Stedel’s home in Bulgaria was searched at the request of French judges during the operation.

Mr. Steidle grew up in the Var department in southern France. In April 2023, the French government agreed to his request to renounce his French citizenship. Last June, after his website was closed, an investigating judge in Bulgaria interviewed him in the presence of French law enforcement officials.

French non-profit organizations combating child abuse, homophobia and illegal online content have been raising concerns about the site for years. Petition demanding its closure It has been signed by more than 20,000 people.

“The coco site was a den of pedophiles,” said Sophie Antoine, who works on legal issues and advocacy for the French organization Law Against Child Prostitution.

Ms Antoine said her organization often uses it to show child care workers “how out in the open the ‘dark web’ really is.” Registration was free and required only name, age and zip code. Once you logged in, other users could contact you to chat and make suggestions — but once you logged out, those chats were immediately cleared, she said.