“Wallah, by the Qur’an”: Two 16-year-olds charged after video of rape in Tourcoing, France; videos circulated, viewed tens of millions of times on social media

The alleged perpetrator was tracked down by internet users and videotaped being beaten. These videos have attracted tens of millions of views on social media since the weekend.

The horror, on our screens. Images of the beginnings of a possible sexual assault on a minor and acts of revenge against the perpetrator have been circulating on social media since the weekend. The videos, posted on Snapchat and then widely shared on X (formerly Twitter), had tens of millions of views by Tuesday morning. The Lille prosecutor’s office told Le Parisien newspaper that an investigation has been launched to fully clarify the case.

The crime allegedly took place in Tourcoing (northern France). A first video was published on X on Saturday afternoon. It shows a youth holding a young girl by the arm and pushing her against a wall located in a deserted place. The two people on the video (the alleged perpetrator and the victim) have not yet been clearly identified, but appear to be minors. In the images, the girl can be heard asking her attacker to leave her alone. She pleads: “Let me go, please, I don’t want anything”. Thereupon the teenager replies: “You’re going to suck my dick”.

(…) On Sunday, the second episode in this sordid case followed. After the alleged attacker was identified by several internet users, he was videoed being beaten by another man. “Why are you doing this? Do you want to carry on or not?” he asked him, delivering slap after slap, while the teenager, lying on the ground and in tears, admitted “not being thinking”. On X, several users claim that the man beating up the alleged attacker is his older brother. While we cannot yet confirm this information, one element in the video supports this version. When asked “Who is responsible for you?” the teenager answers “you” to the person who is beating him up. (…) (…) Le Parisien

https://www.fdesouche.com/2023/09/28/viol-a-tourcoing-59-enquete-ouverte-apres-la-diffusion-de-videos-qui-ont-cumule-plusieurs-dizaines-de-millions-de-vues-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux/