The horror behind closed doorways throughout “slumber events”. Romain G., a 40-year-old man, supervisor within the cinema business and easy father of a household, was not too long ago once more indicted in Villefranche-sur-Saône for acts of rape and sexual assault dedicated on 34 kids aged 2 to 9 years outdated. This sprawling file, which started in December 2024 in Lucenay (Rhône), took on an unprecedented scale after the exploitation of tons of of kid pornography information by the gendarmes, mentioned the general public prosecutor, Laetitia Francart, in a press launch revealed this Thursday.
The affair, revealed by The Worldparticulars a modus operandi of methodical perversity. Between 2020 and 2024, this forty-year-old with no prison report focused nearly completely little boys attending the identical college as his son and daughter. He took benefit of birthday events, tea events or nights spent at his house to abuse the victims, generally throughout their sleep.
127 movies and 197 pictures
Director for the cinema, Romain G. favored to doc his assaults. Along with his cellphone, he allegedly used a miniature digital camera hidden in an alarm clock to movie the abuse inflicted on the little victims. Investigators from the Villefranche-sur-Saône analysis brigade and the Anse brigade bought their fingers on at least 127 movies and 197 pictures.
Initially indicted on January 31, 2025 for the primary information reported by three households, Romain G. not too long ago noticed the costs enhance after the identification of dozens of different kids within the movies and images found. “All minors usually are not victims of the identical offenses,” underlines Laetitia Francart, specifying that the prison {qualifications} – rape, sexual assault, corruption of minors – are refined “youngster by youngster”.
“I feel I used to be born like that”
Backtracking. The affair broke out in December 2024, when a number of kids confided of their dad and mom, who alerted the police. After an preliminary interval of police custody throughout which he denied the information, Romain G. tried to finish his life. The daddy of the household is discovered by the gendarmes whereas he tries to hold himself from an oak tree within the Charnay forest. He was then hospitalized beneath duress.
Earlier than his act, he wrote a chilling testamentary letter addressed to his kids and the households of the victims, together with The World reviews extracts: “I feel I used to be born like that, I did not select to love boys… boys who have been too younger (…) I hated myself for that, however I did not have the power to speak about it.”
He was lastly indicted “on the finish of his hospitalization” for “recording and possessing photographs of a pornographic nature of minors aged 15”. Romain G. is positioned in pre-trial detention. In jail for greater than a yr, the forty-year-old has now admitted the “overwhelming majority” of the information on the 34 victims counted, based on the prosecutor.
“A technique of fact”
Requested by 20 Minuteshis lawyer, Me Clémentine Vergnais, stays sober: “My shopper is in a technique of fact. Nevertheless, we intend to order our explanations for the households and the justice system. I don’t want to make any additional feedback presently. »
In Lucenay, astonishment gave approach to misery. From March 2025, a help and listening unit was deployed throughout the main college with the help of the Instructional Reception Unit for Kids in Hazard (UAPED). The sufferer help affiliation Tandem was additionally contacted by the investigating decide to help the households, a few of whom now reside in different departments. Contacted by 20 Minutesthe mayor of this small city in Beaujolais didn’t want to communicate.
The general public prosecutor and the investigating decide plan to prepare a closed info assembly within the coming weeks to reply dad and mom’ respectable questions and clarify the upcoming levels of an investigation which guarantees to be an extended one.
