France investigates resurgence of website linked to Pelicot crimes

2026-04-29 19:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

French prosecutors have launched an investigation into the resurgence of a website known for facilitating the crimes of Dominique Pelicot, who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his wife Gisèle Pelicot.

Its predecessor, Coco.gg, was an unmoderated platform that offered unregistered access to chat rooms, with French authorities linking it to child sexual abuse, drug offenses, rape and murder.

It was closed in 2024 after being mentioned in more than 23,000 reports of criminal activity, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

Its founder, Isaac Steidl, was charged with several crimes, including possession and distribution of child pornography, in January 2025. He denies the charges.

Since early April, at least two websites with similar names and designs almost identical to the original Coco platform have resurfaced online.

French media reported that the owners of Cocoland.cc issued a statement earlier this month in which they denied any connection to the original Coco website.

As of April 29, Cocoland.cc appeared to have been shut down, while another website named Cocoland was still accessible as of that morning.

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed to the BBC that an investigation had been opened into Cocoland for "distribution of violent, pornographic or offensive messages accessible to minors".

Steidl's lawyer, Julien Zanatta, said his client had "nothing to do" with the new websites, according to AFP.

French portal BFM reported that its journalists were able to access the website within seconds without any registration or checks.

Posing as a 13-year-old girl, the journalists were immediately contacted by users who continued to send them obscene photos and sexually explicit messages even after they were informed that the girl was underage.

Sarah El Haïry, France's high commissioner for children, said the resurgence of the Coco platform constituted a "collective failure in the face of one of the most serious forms of violence: child sexual abuse."

Websites like Coco "exploit every legal loophole, they look for prey, and that prey is children," El Haïry said.

Children and minors were being "approached by predators" through websites, she added, saying that the platforms that hosted them were responsible, as were those who created them.

El Haïry also said he had filed a complaint against two other websites that hosted open chat rooms.

Coco.gg became infamous during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who in 2024 was found guilty of drugging and raping his wife Gisèle for more than a decade and recruiting more than 50 strangers online to rape her as well.

During a four-month trial, dozens of men testified about meeting Pelicot in a Coco chat room called "Without Her Knowledge," where men shared secretly taken photos and videos of women.

Forty-nine men were convicted in December along with Dominque Pelicot. All were found guilty of at least one charge, rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, against Gisèle Pelicot./CNA, translated by BBC