French police arrest founder of website used by Gisèle Pelicot’s ex

The founder of a website used by Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot to recruit strangers to rape his wife as she lay unconscious has been arrested in France.

France Info Radio said the 44-year-old Isaac Steidl had been detained and is currently being interviewed after he was summoned from his home to Paris.

The website, named Coco, has been used by criminals in more than 23,000 crimes, including rape, paedophilia and murder, authorities said. French authorities shut it down last year following an investigation.

The case of Gisèle Pelicot brought the website to mainstream attention after it was revealed her ex-husband, who was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison, had used a chatroom on the domain called “A son insu” (without their knowledge).

Through the forum, Dominique Pelicot recruited more than 80 men to rape and sexually abuse his wife after he gave her prescription drugs which rendered her unconscious. Of these men, 50 stood trial, and all but one were convicted of rape by a court in Avignon in December.

The website was created in 2003 by Steidl with the help of his parents, who invested €2,000 in the endeavour after Steidl graduated as a computer engineer, according to local media.

Although it was originally intended to be a platform for dating, it quickly attracted criminals and sex offenders. In late 2023, LGBTQ+ rights organisation SOS Homophobie called for the site to be taken down after it was reportedly used by criminals to brutally attack a man with bats and sticks.

In another case, a 22-year-old man was beaten to death near Dunkirk in April of last year after two minors pretended to be a young girl and set up a meeting with him through the website.

By June, French police had initiated more than 23,000 judicial proceedings into the website, which prosecutors said swapped owners and domains to avoid prosecution. By the end of 2024, after Gisèle Pelicot’s case attracted international attention, the platform was transferred to a domain on the UK island of Guernsey.

Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that police had seized more than €5 million and froze bank accounts in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, and the Netherlands as a result of the investigation that closed the website.

She said at the time a man of Italian nationality born in 1980 was suspected of running the site.

Police in Bulgaria first questioned Steidl in June last year alongside three of his relatives, who were eventually released after interrogation.

Two moderators of the site were also arrested in July, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.