France tries 66 over child prostitution

I think most people reading this blog will agree the parents, and I use that term ever so lightly, in this story are beyond sick. I went through a series of emotions when I first heard the story on Fox News. At first I wanted to blame cultural moral relativism in secular Western Europe. Then I remembered that there's just as much of this sick behavior in the United States and all over the world regardless of the different countries religious or moral mores. Exposed as I am to children in need of services, I see this sort of thing on a daily basis. In today's world, children simply have no value.

"ANGERS, France (Reuters) - Sixty-six men and women have gone on trial in western France accused of taking part in a vast child prostitution ring in which parents offered their children for sex, often for food or small sums of money.

The accused filed into a specially built courtroom in the town of Angers one by one on Thursday, accompanied by police, but said nothing other than identifying themselves at the start of what is billed as the biggest criminal trial in French history.

Thirty-nine men and 27 women are accused of involvement in the prostitution ring in which 45 children, aged from six months to 15 years, were raped or sexually assaulted between January 1999 and February 2002.

Some are charged with raping their own children or offering them to others for sex. Most are from low-income backgrounds and are poorly educated, and some are illiterate.

The charges have revived soul-searching about paedophilia in France after a series of high-profile cases, including a trial last year in which a man and a woman were jailed for loaning out their children for sex.

The hearings are due to last four months and the most serious charges carry possible jail terms of up to 20 years. The children are not expected to appear in court but some are likely to give evidence on pre-recorded videotapes.

"The children were considered as sex objects for months," said lawyer Meriem Baba-Ronciere, who is representing 12 of the children. "This trial is an important stage in rebuilding their lives."

Some of children now have problems eating, and others have become aggressive or barely talk, prosecutors say.

The role of the social services is also in the dock because social workers failed to spot the crimes despite monitoring the families of some of the accused.

"The social services were unable to spot the abuses they were subjected to. We must try to find out why," said Yves Crespin, who represents a children's defence group."