A court in France sentenced a 19-year-old Afghan asylum seeker to 30 months in prison after convicting him of sexual abuse and serious animal cruelty at an educational farm and animal sanctuary near Marseille. The case involved five goats and a half-year-old lamb at Le Refuge d'un Moment in Pennes-Mirabeau, in southern France. One of the goats later died from its injuries.
The abuse, according to the indictment and trial reports, continued from February through April this year. Farm staff became suspicious after animals were found with tied legs, wounds around their genitals and bloodstains. After several incidents, the sanctuary installed security cameras around the pens. Cassandra Sortino, the owner, said the cameras repeatedly recorded a man near the animals, and more injuries were discovered the next day each time. Staff alerted police several times before officers set a sting to catch the suspect in the act.
Police detained the man, identified only as Massoud S., in April while he was on the farm and one goat was being attacked. Reports said he was wearing latex gloves, and DNA evidence later found in his bag linked him to the assaults. At trial in Aix-en-Provence, he denied all charges and told judges, “I am a normal person.” He said he had missed a train back to Marseille, where he lives in an asylum-seeker center, and had nowhere to sleep because the site was near the station. The court rejected that explanation.
The judge also barred him from remaining in France and ordered his name entered in the registry of sex offenders and violent offenders. Before trial, he underwent a psychiatric evaluation and reportedly told the doctor, “They are making a big deal out of it, but they are only animals.” That remark further outraged animal-rights activists and sanctuary workers. Sortino said the farm is still struggling to process the trauma, the veterinary bills, the inspections, the security costs and the legal process. “We cannot explain it morally,” she said after sentencing. “We feel we failed.”
