Graphic artist appears in French court on child sex abuse charges

A graphic artist who worked on beloved animated feature films for Pixar and Disney went on trial in France Tuesday for allegedly ordering the livestreamed rape of preteen girls.

Bouhalem Bouchiba, 59, has worked at the Pixar and Disney animation studios, contributing to blockbusters like 2004 hit "The Incredibles", and "Ratatouille", released in 2007.

The graphic artist is accused of paying women in the Philippines between 2012 and 2021 to rape and sexually assault girls aged between five and 10 in front of a camera while he watched via livestream and issued instructions.

He is charged with complicity in the repeated rape and sexual assault of minors.

In addition, he is accused of complicity in repeated human trafficking of minors, possession of child pornography images, and of regularly consulting child pornography internet sites.

Police became interested in Bouchiba when Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, sent out an alert about suspicious money transfers to the Philippines.

It noticed the flows during a wider probe into the live-streaming of sexual abuse of children for money paid by Western clients, with the abuse usually taking place in southern hemisphere countries.

"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.

On October 4, 2021, Bouchiba -- who was living in the United States at the time -- was arrested at San Francisco's airport and extradited to France.

 Previously guilty of sex abuse  

During questioning, investigators said, he admitted to being a consumer of sex shows filmed by webcam and involving Filipina women, as well as visiting child porn sites.

He also told investigators that he had first made contact with the women using legal adult-only sex sites.

But then he would move the conversation to secure messaging sites, where he would offer to pay for sexually violent acts to be performed on children, who were mostly between five and 10 years old, although one is believed to have been three or under.

Half of the women refused to continue the conversation, while others accepted and negotiated terms, he said.

Bouchiba would send instructions via the site's chat function. Most of the time the children were raped with fingers. Sometimes they were forced to participate in staged scenes of sexual sadism.

Each show cost between 50 and 100 euros ($54-$108), with the total Bouchiba spent on the performances coming to just over 50,000 euros.

The accused himself has said that he was in contact with 24 women and paid some 10,000 euros for 200 sessions.

Seven associations are plaintiffs in the case, including ACPE, a French anti-child prostitution NGO.

The suspect was already known to police, having been found guilty in 2009 of sexual abuse of his stepdaughter.

He has admitted to watching child pornography on his smartphone, but denies having downloaded any of the content.

The trial runs to Thursday.