Gisèle Pelicot rape case: founder of the website used for the crimes arrested

The founder of the scandalous crime website Coco is arrested in France

Isaac Steidl, founder of the Coco website, has been detained by French law enforcement. The platform was used to organize serious crimes, including sexual abuse, pedophilia, and even murder. One of the most heinous crimes linked to this platform was the Dominique Pelicot case, in which it emerged that the website was used to recruit men to rape his wife, Gisèle Pelicot.

Steidl, 44, was arrested and is being questioned after a year-long investigation by the French police. The investigation found that the website was linked to over 23,000 crimes over a decade. "The Coco platform kept changing domains and owners to evade responsibility, but law enforcement eventually shut down the site entirely and seized more than €5 million from the accounts of its administrators in Lithuania, Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands.

Steidl himself was questioned for the first time in June last year. At the time, he and three other relatives were asked by the Bulgarian police but were released after questioning. In July, two moderators of the website were also arrested. Steidl is also reported to have renounced his French nationality, obtained Italian citizenship in 2023, and lived in Eastern Europe^[1].

Coco was supposed to be a simple dating site, but has become a platform for criminals and perverts

Coco, created in 2003, was originally intended to be a simple dating and chat platform. Steidl, who had just graduated with a degree in computer engineering at the time, wanted to create a space where people could communicate anonymously. His parents invested € 2,000 in the project, and the site quickly became popular.

Over time, however, the platform attracted not only ordinary chatters but also criminals and sexual perverts of all kinds. The anonymity and minimal moderation of the site made it an ideal place to organize various crimes. In 2023 alone, French law enforcement opened more than 23 000 cases related to illegal activities on this platform.

For example, a brutal crime against a homosexual man became widespread. Criminals arranged through the platform to attack a homosexual man who was brutally beaten with baseball bats and other weapons. Following the incident, LGBTQ+ organizations expressed deep concern about the Coco platform, and there were calls for the site to be shut down, but it was only finally closed after a year-long investigation^[2].

Reference is also made to a crime in April last year. A 22-year-old man was beaten to death near Dunkirk after two minors posed as a young girl on the platform and arranged to meet him.

France's worst case: Pelicot organized the rape of his intoxicated wife via the Coco platform

One of the most shocking crimes linked to Coco is that of Dominique Pelicot, which shocked the whole of France and became a global scandal.

D. Pelicot was caught in 2020 when he was caught in a shopping mall taking pictures of women under their skirts. This seemingly minor incident was a turning point: a search of his home revealed shocking traces of a heinous crime: videos and photographs proving that more than 200 rapes had been carried out on his wife, Gisèle Pelicot.

It emerged that for almost a decade, Mr Pelicot had been secretly drugging his wife with psychotropic drugs and inviting strange men to his home to sexually abuse her while she was unconscious. He recruited these men through the Coco platform, using a chat room called "A son insu" (without their knowledge).

19 December 2024 A French court sentences Pelicot to 20 years in prison for organizing the rape of his wife. This decision has become one of the harshest for sexual offenses in France.

The scandalous case identified more than 80 men involved in the crime, ranging in age from 26 to 73 years. Finally, in addition to the main accused, 50 other men were found guilty of involvement in the crimes. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 15 years.

D. Pelicot was also convicted of illegally taking and distributing intimate images, not only of his wife but also of his daughter Caroline and even of his sons' wives. This showed the even broader scope of the crime, which had been hidden for a long time.

As for Caroline, she has become one of the strongest voices in this case, writing a book entitled 'And so I stopped calling you Daddy', in which she publicly denounced her father. Although she never recalled being sexually abused, the graphic material made it clear that she had also been stunned and raped.