There will be a trial for the seventeen men suspected of being involved in the “French Bukkake” affair. In question, a system at the origin of aggravated rapes on dozens of women during filming for the pornographic platform “French Bukkake”. A look back at this affair which shook French amateur porn and where aggravated rape, human trafficking and pimping add up.
A predation system
“Systemic” violence perpetrated against women. This is what the investigation concluded, according to lawyer Me Lorraine Questiaux, who represents several civil parties. Opened in October 2020, the judicial investigation focused on the “system” orchestrated by Julien D., a 42-year-old Rémois, according to the order signed by two Parisian magistrates of which AFP was aware.
In an industry where new actresses are “rare and difficult to recruit”, Julien D. is accused of having played, between 2013 and 2019, three successive virtual characters aimed at luring young women: a reassuring friend, Axelle Vercoutre, who persuaded them to start in escorting; a manager of a so-called luxury agency centered on this activity which recruited them; a supposed client of this agency whom they then met for a fee-based report. Julien D. is accused by the judges of having used this “stratagem” to rape about thirty of these women, then “turned down” by Axelle Vercoutre towards filming mainly under the aegis of two figures of so-called amateur porn.
Shootings described as “torture”
Many plaintiffs mentioned filming under alcohol and narcotics and described their “stunned” on discovering the number of male partners and the sexual acts to be performed, which “were linked […] by surprise”, note the judges. “We were tortured,” one of them assured AFP. “I need today to relive that the barbarism, the sexist and racist hatred of which I have been the victim, be recognized and punished. »
Many civil parties asked the court to hold that the rapes during the filming were accompanied by acts of torture, barbarism and racism, but the two judges refused. The aggravating circumstances of torture and barbarism could have led the case to the Assize Court and allowed, according to Me Questiaux, “a real debate, with jurors, for the first trial of crimes against the humanity of women”, or according to Me Seydi Ba, who represents a victim, “a public interest hearing to discuss the notions of rape and consent”.
A dozen defendants of all ages
In all, 17 men are indicted. They are between 29 and 61 years old and are a leader of the platform, partner, recruiter of actresses, actor. Four of the suspects are currently in pre-trial detention. Among them, amateur pornstars like the leader of the site “French Bukkake” and director nicknamed Pascal OP, as well as his associate known as Mat Hadix.
Alongside Julien D., Pascal OP is also dismissed for aggravated pimping for having allowed customers, who paid a subscription to his platform or who offered their apartment as a filming location, to participate in videos. The order emphasizes that “the system could not prosper without the participation of actors and other directors who took advantage of the 2/3 days of filming by these young women before they were ‘fried'”.
For their part, most of the respondents denied having been aware of the Axelle Vercoutre system and assured that the women were consenting. Me Dylan Slama, an actor’s lawyer, hopes to be able to “finally explain the reality of the course of [son] client, who is not that of a sexual aggressor”.
Defendants face heavy sentences
They will be judged by the departmental criminal court of Paris for several crimes and misdemeanors, including gang rape, trafficking in human beings in an organized gang or even aggravated pimping. Serious charges for which heavy prison sentences are expected.
Rape is punishable by twenty years’ criminal imprisonment “when committed by several people acting as perpetrators or accomplices”, according to Rule 222-24 of the Penal Code. Trafficking in human beings “is punishable by twenty years’ imprisonment and a fine of 3,000,000 euros when committed in an organized gang”, according to Rule 225-4-3 of the Penal Code. Finally, with regard to aggravated pimping, the accused risk up to ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of 1,500,000 euros, according to the article 225-7.
About fifty victims in their twenties
About fifty female victims, on average aged around twenty and targeted for their precariousness, have been identified. Forty of them and four associations, Les Effrontées, the Mouvement du Nid, Dare feminism and the League of Human Rights, are civil parties.