French child-sex ring accused acquitted after 14 years

A French court has acquitted one of the last people to be tried in a paedophilia ring case that has dragged on for more than a decade. The public prosecutor had called for a not guilty verdict in the case of Daniel Legrand, who was a minor at the time some of the child-sex crimes he was accused of were committed.

Daniel Legrand at the court in Rennes on 3 June 2015 AFP

After deliberating for more than five hours, the president of the juvenile court in the western French city of Rennes declared Legrand innocent of all charges.

Legrand's mother and sisters went to sit beside him as scattered applause broke out.

Legrand, 33, had already been acquitted at an adults' court but was tried separately for offences alleged to have taken place when he was under 18.

The Outreau affair - named after the northern French seaside town where the participants lived - hit the headlines in 2001 when two boys, Chérif and Jonathan Delay, accused their parents and some neighbours of raping them.

It led to a trial with 17 accused in the dock and claims of a paedophile ring involving as many as 70 people.

At a trial in 2004 the boys' parents and two other accused who had pleaded guilty were convicted, along with three other people.

At an appeal in 2005 all those who had pleaded innocent, including Legrand's father, were acquitted and received an apology and financial compensation.

Daniel Legrand junior was among them but the charges committed before his 18th birthday were taken to a juvenile court, which started its final deliberations on 19 May.

Chérif and Jonathan Delay, along with their brother Dmitri, maintained their accusations against him.

Jonathan, who is now 21, said he was a "bit shocked" by the verdict but that the trial had provided some relief.

"I have been walking around with a burden for the last 10 years and I laid it down at the bar," he said.