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French court jails Aussie ‘guru’ for teen girls’ rape

An Australian Hare Krishna follower dubbed the “guru of Valbonne” was jailed for 15 years this week for raping two 15-year-old girls in the south of France. In a separate case in France, a cult leader, was jailed for five years for forcing family members to have sex with each other.

Published: 18 October 2013 18:39 CEST
French court jails Aussie 'guru' for teen girls' rape
An Australian Hare Krishna dubbed the “guru of Valbonne” was this week sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping two 15-year-old girls in the south of France. Photo: Indi Samarajiva

A court in the southern French city of Nice sentenced a 41-year-old Australian man to 15 years in prison this week, after finding him guilty of raping two 15-year-old female “followers”, according to local newspaper Nice Matin.

Sean O’ Neil, was labelled a “sexual predator” by prosecutor Muriel Fusina during sentencing on Wednesday.

O'Neill himself had claimed he had been reluctantly servicing the “unbridled sexual appetites” of the teenage girls.

Prosecuting lawyer Katia Calvini rejected those claims out of hand on Wednesday, telling the court: “He is a narcissistic pervert, he’s just trying to shift the responsibility for what actually happened.”

Fusina agreed, telling the Australian expat: “You are a sexual predator, who used the concepts of Hare Krishna for your own perverted ends."

"In your clutches, two teenage girls lost their virginity. Under your influence, they prayed for two hours every day, undertook a vegan diet, and broke off ties with their friends," she continued.

O’ Neil had told the court earlier in the day that he had only come to France in the first place at the “urgent request” of ‘Marie’ – one of his teenage victims, whom he had met online.

To the shock and visible upset of his victims, present in the court on Wednesday, O’ Neil even went so far as to blame them for the apparent physical abuse he subjected them to.

“She asked me to to hit her, so I did, until my hands hurt,” a weeping O’ Neil told the court in Nice, adding that he had had no choice but to engage in group sex with the girls.

O’ Neil was acquitted of the rape of a third teenage girl, but the court ordered that he be deported from France for life at the conclusion of his prison sentence.

'You forced a mother to have sex with her own children'

Elsewhere this week, a 57-year-old former English teacher and erstwhile cult leader was sentenced to five years in prison for “abuse of weakness,” for forcing followers and even members of the same family to have sex with each other.

The sentence was passed in the context of France’s strict 2001 law against cults.

The court in Caen, north-western France on Wednesday found that Françoise Dercle from the ‘Parc d’Accueil’ sect had forced her followers to have sex with each other, often in groups, between 2002 and 2007.

Dercle frequently even forced family members to engage in incestuous sex acts with each other, the court found.

Judge Henri Ody on Wednesday confronted Dercle with a particularly disturbing incident. “You forced a mother to have sexual relations with her [adult] children, one of whom was severely handicapped,” Ody told Dercle.

She had originally been given a four-year jail term in January, but her sentence was increased by 12 months on Wednesday.

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VISAS

Foreigners in France victims of ‘bot’ scammers targeting préfecture appointments

Foreigners in France struggling to get admin appointments at the préfecture appear to be the victims of 'bot' scammers, with the problem particularly bad in Paris.

Published: 4 February 2022 13:34 CET
Updated: 12 October 2022 09:04 CEST
Foreigners in France victims of 'bot' scammers targeting préfecture appointments
The scams are relatively unsophisticated but cause great stress. Photo: Nicolas Asfour/AFP

If you’re a foreigner in France an appointment at the préfecture is vital to complete legal procedures such as getting a visa or carte de séjour, and most préfectures now run an online booking system for appointments.

But many people – particularly in Paris – have reported that finding an appointment slot is almost impossible, and in many cases this is because of scam operations targeting préfectures.  

The scammers use automated bots to immediately book up all available appointments slots at the préfecture, and then set up illicit websites or Facebook pages charging for appointments.

Since most préfectures moved to online appointment systems police have broken up several rings of professional scammers working in this way. 

But it seems that the problem is still ongoing, particularly in Paris and the surrounding suburbs, with official appointments scarce and a plethora of websites and Facebook pages offering ‘one click rendez-vous’ services for anything from €30 up to €400.

In recent days several people have reported trying and failing for weeks to secure appointments, but the problems have been ongoing for some time.

Back in February, The Local spoke to Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, 27, who had been trying for almost a month to book an appointment at the Paris préfecture to pick up her completed visa.

She said: “It’s so frustrating, my visa application is complete, all I need is a slot for a five-minute appointment at the préfecture to show ID, pay the fee and collect the completed card, but I’ve been trying to book one since January 3rd and there are just no slots.

“I’m checking the website multiple times a day and still nothing.

“I friend told me that the préfecture puts up the new appointments for the week at one minute past midnight on Sunday, and they had got one my logging onto the website then, but I was all ready at the time, multiple browsers open and ready, but still couldn’t get one.”

The typical MO of the scammers is to use automated bots to immediately book all appointments that a préfecture posts. They then set up a website or Facebook page offering ‘easy rendez-vous’ appointments, alerts on available appointments or ‘one click RV services’ – users are then offered an available appointment in exchange for a fee.

Although some administrative procedures like visas or resident cards come with a fee, the appointment itself at the préfecture should be free.

Another American in Paris told us: “I used the new online service to renew my titre de séjour – it was brilliant, really simple and so much better than having to go down to the préfecture with a huge stack of documents every year – but now I can’t get an appointment to pick up the card, which should be the easy bit.”

READ ALSO 8 online services which make French bureaucracy easier

Another reader told us that it had taken them three weeks to get their appointment, but when they went on the appointed day staff were not busy and many appointment slots appeared to be vacant.

Local authorities periodically post warnings on their websites if scammers are operating in the area, while French media including Le Monde and Le Parisien have repeatedly flagged the problem. 

While the issue is annoying and stressful for many foreigners in France, for those in precarious situations such as refugees the problem is even more acute and can see them losing the right to legal status in France.

In areas like Seine-Saint-Denis, which has a large number of migrants living in the area, many people resort to turning up at the préfecture in the early hours of the morning, hoping to secure an appointment slot when offices open. 

Hannah added: “The whole situation is really stressing me out but I’m aware that I am in a privileged position – my visa is already sorted and I have a job where I can be constantly refreshing to préfecture website. Also I can take time off whenever I finally do get the appointment slot. Other people are not so fortunate and this must be terrible for them.”

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