The criminal court in Besançon (Doubs) sentenced 25-year-old Théo Denner to 18 years in prison. Nicknamed the "Doubs lumberjack," this apprentice lumberjack was found guilty of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and invasion of privacy against 42 victims, aged 13 to 19.
The court also imposed a ten-year socio-judicial supervision order, along with a mandatory treatment order. The trial, which began on March 9, concluded with a scene that has become almost routine in this type of case: the accused offered "his apologies to the victims" just before the verdict, while the prosecution had requested a 20-year prison sentence and described a man trapped in a cycle of repeating the same acts.
A digital trap, teenage victims
A digital trap, teenage victims. Between 2018 and 2023, according to the investigation, Théo Denner posed on Facebook as a young woman named "Aurélie," luring teenagers into exchanging intimate images before closing the trap. Once the content was obtained, he resorted to blackmail, threatening to distribute it, and then, for some victims, coercion into sexual relations: an organized modus operandi, an assumed domination, the prosecution emphasized.
The case broke in 2021 after a 17-year-old boy revealed to his family that he was being blackmailed with a sex tape and had been raped—a turning point that triggered a sprawling investigation. On the defendant's electronic devices, investigators discovered more than 170,000 pornographic files, filed in folders bearing the victims' names. The case, which lasted four years, ultimately resulted in 79 charges, with 62 plaintiffs and witnesses testifying. The verdict closes this legal chapter, but it doesn't tell the whole story of the work that still awaits families, institutions, and platforms in the face of this predatory behavior, which often begins with a simple message.
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