A Paris court on Friday sentenced 29-year-old Indian national Rohan Rane to 20 years in prison for heading an international online network that coerced children — many of them minors — into producing sexual and violent videos.
The verdict, delivered after a five-day trial held largely behind closed doors before a special criminal court, marks one of the heaviest sentences handed down in France for online child exploitation. Prosecutors had sought a 30-year term.
A network spanning three countries
The court heard that Rane led a masculinist group known as "CVLT" that became active on the Discord platform ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. The network targeted vulnerable children in the United States, Britain and Canada, luring them online and coercing them into producing violent and sexual videos.
Most of the dozens of victims were American girls, and many were under 15, the court was told. About 20 victims were identified, though prosecutors said others could not be contacted. Six of the girls, now aged between 18 and 21, made official complaints. Other young male members of the group came from the United States, India, Germany and New Zealand.
Guilty on organised extortion charges
After the hearings, the court found Rane guilty of offences including extortion committed as part of an organised gang, with the aggravating circumstances of acts of torture and barbarity against the victims.
Prosecutors described Rane, who came to France to study at a commercial school in the southern town of Antibes before becoming a sports coach, as a neo-Nazi sympathiser driven by sadism and macabre ultra-violence. They said the CVLT group was animated by nihilism, racism, anti-Semitism and hatred of feminists and the LGBTQ+ community.
Rane was first arrested in 2021 in Antibes after US authorities passed information to French police about his leadership role in the group. Court documents show he later admitted to being the administrator of the Discord group.
The 20-year sentence was the maximum available for the charges he faced. At least three other members of the group have been arrested in the United States, according to court documents cited by the Associated Press.
Sources:
Indian man jailed in Paris over leading online child abuse ring — The Hindu
Indian man sentenced in Paris over a global Discord ring accused of abusing children — New Indian Express
The verdict, delivered after a five-day trial held largely behind closed doors before a special criminal court, marks one of the heaviest sentences handed down in France for online child exploitation. Prosecutors had sought a 30-year term.
A network spanning three countries
The court heard that Rane led a masculinist group known as "CVLT" that became active on the Discord platform ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. The network targeted vulnerable children in the United States, Britain and Canada, luring them online and coercing them into producing violent and sexual videos.
Most of the dozens of victims were American girls, and many were under 15, the court was told. About 20 victims were identified, though prosecutors said others could not be contacted. Six of the girls, now aged between 18 and 21, made official complaints. Other young male members of the group came from the United States, India, Germany and New Zealand.
Guilty on organised extortion charges
After the hearings, the court found Rane guilty of offences including extortion committed as part of an organised gang, with the aggravating circumstances of acts of torture and barbarity against the victims.
Prosecutors described Rane, who came to France to study at a commercial school in the southern town of Antibes before becoming a sports coach, as a neo-Nazi sympathiser driven by sadism and macabre ultra-violence. They said the CVLT group was animated by nihilism, racism, anti-Semitism and hatred of feminists and the LGBTQ+ community.
Rane was first arrested in 2021 in Antibes after US authorities passed information to French police about his leadership role in the group. Court documents show he later admitted to being the administrator of the Discord group.
The 20-year sentence was the maximum available for the charges he faced. At least three other members of the group have been arrested in the United States, according to court documents cited by the Associated Press.
Sources:
Indian man jailed in Paris over leading online child abuse ring — The Hindu
Indian man sentenced in Paris over a global Discord ring accused of abusing children — New Indian Express
