MAP Forum

A former “star” graphic designer for Disney and Pixar was sentenced on the evening of Thursday, October 31, to twenty-five years in prison with a two-thirds security period in Paris, where he appeared for complicity in rape and sexual assault on several hundred Filipino girls. After deliberating for more than six hours, the Assize Court found Bohlem Bouchiba guilty of complicity in rape and sexual assault on minors as a repeat offender. He was also found guilty of complicity in aggravated human trafficking on minors as a repeat offender and habitual viewing of child pornography online. The court also retained the aggravating circumstance of acts of torture and barbarity that had been submitted to it by the prosecution concerning the facts of complicity in rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. However, he was acquitted of the facts of possession of child pornography images “on the benefit of the doubt.” The Paris Assize Court also ordered a twenty-year socio-judicial follow-up, the obligation to compensate the civil parties and the definitive ban on exercising a profession with minors.

During his last speech, Bohlem Bouchiba, balding head and graying beard, had once again admitted his guilt. "I am aware of everything I have done. I ask the victims for forgiveness," he added.
The 59-year-old man had been on trial since Tuesday for having, between 2012 and 2021, paid Filipino women to rape and sexually assault Filipino girls, aged 5 to 10, and at least once a 2-year-old girl, in front of a webcam by practicing live streaming. On the other side of the screen, the accused gave orders, which he himself described as "horrible" and "disgusting" and masturbated.

Already registered in the sex offenders file

Earlier in the day, the public prosecutor had requested the same sentence against the accused. "On the stage right, you have the graphic designer who amazes children [...] then on the stage right, Bohlem Bouchiba is a pedophile director who writes his own horror films," declared the attorney general Philippe Courroye. The defense, for its part, had argued in favor of "nuance" in this case where the accused had admitted "all the facts alleged", also calling for consideration of "his psychological development".
For three days, several experts testified in court, detailing the story of this man who had become an "international drawing authority", according to the presiding judge, Mahrez Abassi, but with a "complex" past and "disturbed sexuality". During his interrogation, the accused had spontaneously admitted to being guilty of "all the facts" alleged and highlighted "the benefits of prison" in his journey of redemption. "For three years, I did not masturbate while thinking of a child", he had assured.

To speak of these children, Bohlem Bouchiba, described by experts as a “pedophile” and “sadist,” admitted to using the term “pigs” and ordering violent and “scripted” acts against them. For example, he ordered “a T-shirt to be put in the pig’s mouth” or to use a knife on a child’s genitals. According to him, these instructions were intended “to scare [himself],” but acknowledged that they were similar to “torture.” It was once the video was finished that he sent the money, between 50 and 100 euros. A way, according to him, to exonerate himself.

“Every time I sent money, it gave me a psychological lack of responsibility” during the period. His name was registered in Fijais, the sex offenders’ register, after a first conviction in 2014 for sexually assaulting his 9-year-old stepdaughter.