CHILD-SEX CONVICTIONS

A French court convicted 62 men and women yesterday in a mass trial and sentenced some of them to as much as 28 years in prison for their roles in a network that raped and prostituted children.  Up to 45 children were raped or sexually assaulted between 1999 and 2002.  The children were between the ages of 6 months and 14 years old.  They were raped and abused by parents, grandparents or acquaintances in a working class neighborhood.  The court sentenced a defendant known only as Philippe V. to 28 years in prison for raping his own grandchildren.  Most of the sex criminals raped their own children or offered them to others for sex, often for food or small sums of money.  

(Angers, France)