Hard to understand the French

Trying to understand.

[More than four out of 10 forces surveyed by the inspectors had not included child protection in their most recent policing plan.]

"If the protection of children and the investigation of child abuse are to move from being a stated priority to an actual priority, they need to become clearly visible within policing plans."

France Faces Up to the Horror of Horrors

PA"


The colourful playgrounds and prim plantings of a French working class housing complex seems to have hidden a grim secret for years. Inside, prosecutors say, parents allegedly raped, abused and pimped their children - some not yet old enough to walk.

Well-maintained, modern and inviting, the three-story apartment buildings of the Saint-Leonard neighbourhood in the western town of Angers were designed to make life in low-income housing civilised.

But some of the residents who moved in after it opened in 1998 are accused of terrible acts.

Sixty-six people have gone on trial this week for crimes of paedophilia that have stunned France.

The case, coming on the heels of another high-profile paedophilia trial in northern France last year, has prompted renewed soul-searching about how people could sink so low in a country that prides itself as an economic and political leader of Europe.

Investigators say 45 children - aged from 6 months to 14 years - were abused by their parents or people close to them from 1999 to 2002, in some cases in exchange for small amounts of money, food, cigarettes or alcohol. A grandfather of some of the children allegedly filmed rapes and other abuse.

The trial's second day yesterday was devoted to presenting the more than 200 witnesses to the court.

In Angers, known for its medieval castle and Cointreau liquor, some residents refuse to accept that such crimes could be perpetrated in their midst, Angers' Deputy Mayor Michelle Moreau said.

"I've heard people say to me, 'But you know, these children were used to it,"' she said. "It's the horror of horror."

The trial is expected to last four months. But, getting over the horror could take far longer.

French newspapers in recent days have been full of questions by child psychologists and columnists asking how something so ghastly and so enormous could have gone undetected so long.

Part of the explanation was the tight-knit nature of the ring - husbands forced wives and parents forced children, lawyers said.

Three couples at the heart of the case lured their children and those of their friends, relatives and neighbours by saying they were going to "play doctor," the prosecution's 420-page legal filing charges. One girl was allegedly raped 45 times.

Alcoholism, poverty and, defence lawyers claim, a failure of social workers to spot signs of abuse may have played a role.

"The person I'm defending sits in the box next to his father, who is the perpetrator of sexual acts on him only years ago - and now is his accomplice," said Pascal Rouiller, an lawyer who represents five defendants.

Three of the main defendants were childhood friends who met while under the care of child psychologists, said defence attorney Patrick Decamps.

Some are said by their lawyers to be illiterate and Moreau, the deputy mayor, said some were already known to police.

"But in all sincerity, I never imagined that they were involved in paedophilia,", she said. "I do not know how to explain what happened."