PARIS (AP) — A 29-year-old Indian man faces a verdict Friday in a Paris trial over his alleged involvement in an international criminal network that targeted vulnerable children in the U.S., Britain and Canada and coerced them into producing violent and sexual videos.
The child victims were recruited via the online platform Discord to become “slaves” to a group known as CVLT, according to court documents in the case obtained by The Associated Press.
At least three other members of the group have been arrested in the U.S.
Rohan Rane, allegedly one of the international online group's leaders, has been on trial this week in Paris on charges including torture of minors, extortion, corrupting minors online and distributing child sex images.
Judges ordered the trial held behind closed doors in a rare move because the case involves abuse of children. Rane faces up to 20 years in prison in France if convicted.
Following alerts from U.S. authorities, Rane was arrested by police in Antibes in southern France in 2021. While he initially claimed the situation was a “misunderstanding,” court documents show that he later admitted to being the administrator of the Discord group and stated that he enjoyed watching violent videos, specifically those depicting murders, self-harm and corpses.
A lawyer for five U.S. victims, Hippolyte Marquetty described “extremely damaging consequences for the victims; they have shattered lives.”
“What the victims expect from the court, is a sentence that matches the severity of the actions,” Marquetty told The Associated Press. "And a sentence that, in some way, also protects society a bit and says no, this is truly unacceptable, and prevents this man from being released immediately and potentially reoffending.”
Rane’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Rane, originally from the Indian city of Pune, was studying in France at the time. French authorities chose to complete criminal proceedings in France before considering extradition.
An examination of videos found on his computer and phone showed young girls engaging in self-harm on his orders, including carving the name “Rohan” or swastikas into their skin or damaging their genitals, according to the court documents.
The psychiatrist who evaluated him described the suspect as being in a state of denial, saying Rane understood the allegations against him but refused to accept any responsibility and projected the blame onto others.
Rane told authorities that he had arrived in France in 2016 to pursue studies. He stated that he relied financially on his parents, who lived in India, and had a girlfriend living in the United States, whom he had met online but never met in person, for several months. In reality, she was one of the CVLT victims whom Rane and others were threatening, the court documents said.
The documents said that since his detention in 2021, Rane continued to communicate with others via Discord, and similar types of images were discovered on his phone while in custody. In June 2021, he was still corresponding with minors aged 15 and 16, urging them to join “his cult.”
In February 2022, writings covered in swastikas were found in his cell. He has since been placed in solitary confinement.
Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 26, another senior member of the group, is currently in federal custody in Los Angeles but is also serving a 33-year prison sentence in Virginia, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement. Merritt, of Spring, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. He faces a sentencing hearing in January.
Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 42, of Pahoa, Hawaii, and Collin John Thomas Walker, 24, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, were other members of the group, according to the statement.
Intelligence from various countries helped identify other accomplices, including a British national, a New Zealander, an Australian, and another American. Others could not be positively identified.
The U.S. Justice Department statement said CVLT sought to create an army of followers, and espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles.
Among the civil parties in the case is ECPAT 360, an NGO that fights sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. A representative for the group, Anna Rodriguez, described the testimony that has emerged during the trial about the abuse that the child victims suffered, such as being coerced to drink their own urine during a livestream.
“There is an explosion of violence and cruelty in the sexual violence committed against children and minors online,” she told AP.
Rodriguez said the civil parties advocated for an open trial to bring public attention to what’s happening in the dark corners of the internet.
"This violence is currently minimized because it is digital, because they are happening online, we tend to consider them virtual, confined to a bubble that supposedly doesn’t impact the victims themselves," she said. "This case demonstrates the exact opposite.”
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Vaux-Montagny reported from Saint-Etienne, France.
