A French graphic artist, who worked for Pixar and Disney went on trial on Tuesday for allegedly ordering live-streamed rape of preteen girls. Bouhalem Bouchiba is charged with complicity in the repeated rape and sexual assault of minors along with involvement in human trafficking of minors, possession of child pornography images, and regularly consulting child pornography internet sites.
The 59-year-old graphic artist is accused of paying women in the Philippines between 2012 and 2021 to rape and sexually assault minor girls in front of a camera while he watched via livestream and gave instructions.
Police started investigating Bouchiba after the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation alerted them about suspicious money transfers to the Philippines.
Europol noticed the transactions during a larger investigation into livestreamed sexual abuse of children funded by Western clients, often happening in countries in the southern hemisphere.
“This case takes the judiciary into new territory,” because it “raises unprecedented questions about the workings of the law, and of the human soul,” said Romain Ruiz, one of Bouchiba’s lawyers.
“It is to the credit of this court to have accepted to ask them,” he told AFP in the run-up to the trial.
Bouchiba admitted to being a consumer of sex shows filmed by webcam and involving Filipina women, as well as visiting child porn sites when questioned by investigators.
Bouchiba confessed that he met women on adult-only sites. He would then continue the conversation on private platforms where he would offer to pay for sexually violent acts to be performed on children, mostly aged between 5-10 years old. The children were raped with fingers, sometimes they were forced to participate in staged scenes of sexual sadism, a condition of experiencing sexual arousal in response to the involuntary pain and suffering of other people.
The accused admitted to being involved with 24 women, paying around 10,000 euros for 200 sessions, with each show costing between 50 and 100 euros. In total, Bouchiba spent over 50,000 euros on these performances.
Bouchiba was found guilty in 2009 of sexual abuse of his stepdaughter, according to the police.
Bouchiba was arrested on October 4, 2021, while living in the United States. He was taken into custody at San Francisco’s airport and later extradited to France.
The accused has contributed to popular animated films like “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille”.