A French juvenile court sentenced on Friday three teenage boys to prison for the brutal gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl, a crime the court ruled was driven by antisemitic motives.
The verdict, delivered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, comes nearly a year after the June 2024 assault that shocked France and underscored growing concerns over youth involvement in hate-fueled violence.
According to prosecutors, the attack took place in Corbeil-Essonnes, where the girl was lured from a public square near her home to an abandoned hangar. There, she was beaten, subjected to antisemitic slurs including “dirty Jew” and threatened to burn her with a lighter held to her face. Two of the boys raped her while the third recorded the assault on a phone. The attackers later threatened her into silence.
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The two main defendants, both 14, were sentenced to seven and nine years in prison. The third defendant, a 13-year-old who was the victim’s former boyfriend, received a five-year sentence in a closed educational facility. According to the indictment, the former boyfriend became angry when he learned the girl was Jewish, a fact she had not disclosed to him.
The defendants were convicted of a range of serious offenses, including gang rape and abuse, sexual assault, violent assault, attempted extortion and issuing death threats. The court ruled that the antisemitic nature of the crimes constituted an aggravating factor in determining the sentence.