Child abuse trial opens in France
Added on March 3, 2005
03 March 2005 12:01
France's second highest-profile paedophile trial in as many months has opened in the western town of Angers.
More than 60 people, a third of them women, are facing various charges of raping and sexually abusing children.
They are alleged to have been part of a paedophile ring.
It is claimed the offences took place between 1999 and 2001 and involved 45 child victims.
The prosecution hopes to avoid any repetition of the errors that plagued a previous high-profile paedophile trial - the Outreau case in northern France last year.
In that case, the accused spent months in prison awaiting trial and 13 people were implicated on the testimony of a woman who later admitted she had been lying.