Three young teenagers have been arrested in France after the anti-semitic-inspired gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl after dragging her into an abandoned building in Courbevoie.
While walking home on Saturday through a local park, the young Jewish girl came in contact with two boys, who forced her to follow them to a nearby abandoned daycare centre. They were met by a third boy, who began insulting the 12-year-old girl about her religion, allegedly referring to her as a “dirty Jew”, according to police information cited by Le Figaro.
The situation dramatically escalated, with the young girl being beaten and thrown to the ground as the boys took pictures of her. One of her assailants is said to have held a lighter close to her face, threatening to “burn” her.
Then they allegedly began to gang rape the 12-year-old, violently forcing vaginal and anal penetration and fellatio. Her attackers also reportedly threatened to kill her if she spoke with the police.
However, having told her parents of the attack, the family did go to the police. Three boys, aged 12, 13 and 14 were arrested in connection to the alleged rape based on visual descriptions confirmed by a friend of the 12-year-old girl as well as from CCTV footage placing the three youths near the scene of the incident. The rape was later confirmed by a gynaecological examination at the Garches Medico-Judicial Center.
According to Le Parisien, the three youths appeared on Tuesday before a court where “the judge charged two of the three minors with aggravated rape (group rape, on a minor under 15 and in the presence of minors), sexual assault in a group, attempted extortion, violence committed in a group, on a minor under 15 and on grounds of religion, invasion of privacy by fixing, recording or transmitting the image of a person presenting a sexual nature, repeated death threats, insult on grounds of religion”.
The third defendant was reportedly “placed under the status of assisted witness concerning the facts of rape, and charged with the rest of the offences referred to in the introductory indictment.”
The youngest alleged rapist was merely subjected to a judicial “education measure” while the other two were placed in custody under pre-trial detention for minors.
The paper reported that the youths “partially” admitted to the facts of the case, while saying that they acted out of revenge, with one of the accused having previously been the victim’s boyfriend, who was reportedly angered over the girl hiding that she was Jewish from him.
Investigators are said to have discovered antisemitic images and comments on his phone, including one picture of a burnt Israeli flag. It has also been alleged that he was angered over negative comments the victim made about Palestine.