LE HAVRE, France – A French court convicted five adolescents for their involvement in a violent assault on a teenage girl, which they livestreamed on social media in January. The teenagers, aged 15 to 16, were charged with group violence, making death threats, and filming and distributing pornographic images of minors via social media networks.
The perpetrators in the northern port city of Le Havre streamed the attack on social media, showing the victim partially nude. The court found all five teens guilty in a closed hearing that lasted nearly 10 hours. The lawyer for one of the defendants, Elisa Haussetete, stated that the group nature of the attack made the violence more extreme and was the driving force behind the assault. She also mentioned that all five teens have expressed sincere regret, and there will be no appeal.
Sentencing for the attackers is scheduled to take place at hearings in September. Four of the attackers are under judicial supervision and cannot leave the Seine-Maritime region, while the fifth remains in a closed educational center. They are all forbidden from contacting the victim or her family. Additionally, some of the teens had previously been accused of hitting another 14-year-old girl the day before the attack, and that case will be heard at a later date.
Former French prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, announced a plan in September 2023 to address bullying in schools, which affects one in 10 students in France according to the government. The plan comes after a series of suicides by schoolchildren who were harassed online. As part of the plan, then education minister, Gabriel Attal, declared that the fight against school harassment was an “absolute priority.”
Despite the prevalence of online attacks and school harassment, complaints are rare. Only six percent of victims of online attacks report the incident to the authorities, according to a 2022 report from the French interior ministry. These cases highlight the need for stronger measures to address and prevent similar incidents in the future.