France Indicts Founder of Notorious Website Used in Pelicot Rape Case

The founder of the website used by Dominique Pelicot to invite dozens of men to rape his wife after he’d drugged her was indicted on Thursday in France on myriad charges, including some related to that case.

If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 7.5 million euros, or about $7.7 million.

The site’s founder, Isaac Steidl, 44, was released from jail on Thursday. The investigating judge’s office said he was placed under “judicial supervision,” had to pay a bail of 100,000 euros and was barred from leaving France.

The website he created in 2003, called coco.fr, became notorious in France during the trial of Mr. Pelicot and 50 other men, who were all found guilty last month, mostly for raping Mr. Pelicot’s now ex-wife, Gisèle, while she was heavily sedated.

One of the charges against Mr. Steidl that is related to the Pelicot case is administering an online platform to enable an illicit transaction by an organized gang. Among the other charges he faces are complicity in drug trafficking, complicity in the possession and distribution of child pornography, aggravated pimping and aggravated money laundering.

Mr. Steidl “firmly denies the accusations made against him, and undertakes to cooperate fully to demonstrate his lack of responsibility for the alleged offenses,” his lawyer, Julien Zanatta, told Agence France-Presse.

During the trial, some of the men said that the website became a hotbed for predators who paid a 5 euro monthly fee to communicate in private chat rooms that had names like “without her knowledge.” The site was not moderated, several defendants testified. It kept no record of messages, according to Le Monde, a French newspaper.

Many said during the trial that after connecting with Mr. Pelicot on the site, they then moved to private chats, by text or Skype, to arrange a visit to the Pelicots’ home in southern France, where they joined him in raping his ex-wife while she was in a deeply drugged state.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement that the website was implicated in more than 23,000 cases in France alone from 2021 to 2024, involving 480 alleged victims. The cases included allegations of sexual abuse of children, pimping, prostitution, rape, drug trafficking, scams and homicides, police and prosectors said in a statement.

The site was shut down in June after an 18-month investigation that stretched across Europe. Police froze bank accounts in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands and seized 5 million euros, the Paris prosecutor said at the time.

Mr. Steidl’s home in Bulgaria had been searched at the request of French judges over the course of the operation, the prosecutor’s office said.

Mr. Steidl grew up in the southern French province of Var. In April 2023, the French government agreed to his demand to renounce his French citizenship. Last June, after his site was closed, he was interviewed by an investigating judge in Bulgaria, with French law enforcement officials present.