A young Togolese man went on trial near
Paris on Tuesday charged with raping and assaulting three adolescents in
voodoo exorcism sessions.
The man, who faces up to 20
years in prison if convicted, is accused of raping the niece of his
girlfriend and her two elder sisters.
"I did something
that was not good," the 28-year-old father-of-two told a court in the
eastern suburb of Bobigny, adding that he had now stopped practising
voodoo.
The 41-year-old mother of the girls, who allegedly gave her consent to the rituals, also went on trial for complicity.
ARRESTED AFTER LAST ALLEGED RAPE
The
alleged rapes took place between 2010 and 2011, and the suspect is
accused of making cuts on the girls' hands and legs and applying a black
powder to the wounds.
He also washed their genital areas.
The man was arrested in February 2011 after his last alleged rape. The verdict is due on Friday.
Cases of voodoo exorcisms come up from time to time in France, which has a large African community.
Recently four men were sentenced for holding a young woman captive and torturing her as they believed she was possessed.
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