France has launched a probe into the reappearance of a website that enabled sex criminal Dominique Pelicot to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, Gisèle Pelicot, prosecutors said on Tuesday, April 28.
Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024. "The Paris public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the website's reopening," the prosecutor's office told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The website, now operating under a new URL and the name Cocoland and featuring a coconut-themed backdrop, was seen to be accessible on Tuesday. Prior to the platform's re-emergence, the investigation into the Coco platform was "well advanced," according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
France's high commissioner for children, Sarah El Haïry, raised the alarm on the situation in mid-April. "The reopening of the Coco site is a real slap in the face to the promise of protection we've made," she told the broadcaster RMC at the time. Such websites "exploit every loophole, they seek out prey, and that prey is children," she said, adding: "We will track them down, we will hound them, we will give them no respite."
