A 19-year-old Afghan national has been arrested and charged following a series of brutal sexual attacks on goats and sheep in Pennes-Mirabeau, a municipality in Bouches-du-Rhône, near Marseille.
The suspect was taken into custody by the anti-crime brigade (BAC) on the night of April 9-10, 2026, after local sheep and goat owners alerted police. Since early 2026, several owners had discovered their animals injured, with incidents reported in both February and March. The animals had their legs tied and showed clear signs of rape, according to French newspaper La Provence.
After multiple similar episodes, the owners installed motion-sensor cameras on their properties in an attempt to identify the perpetrator. The footage revealed the silhouette of a young man visiting their livestock at night, and the images were handed over to police, who were eventually able to identify a matching suspect.
The man appeared before a judge on Saturday, April 11, who ordered his placement in pre-trial detention. He was set to appear in court on Monday, April 13. He faces up to three years in prison and a €45,000 fine for acts of cruelty toward domesticated animals.
The case has drawn the attention of the Animal Protection Association (SPA), which announced it would pursue civil action in the matter.
“[We] are going to take this barbarian to court,” the SPA declared. “Thank you to the national police for their essential intervention.”
Previous cases
Last year in Germany, a shocking case has emerged from the beautiful town of Oberneufnach in Bavaria, which involved a 52-year-old Turkish asylum seeker allegedly breaking into a stable and sexually abusing ponies.
The man, who is from a refugee shelter in the nearby town of Anhofen, was arrested after he was caught on surveillance video.
The man broke into the horse farm at 6:45 p.m. while the family was having dinner. They heard the dog barking and then looked on surveillance monitors, where they saw the man in the stable with his pants down on top of one of the animals.
The boyfriend then ran to the stables to chase down the man, but he had already fled the scene. He continued his pursuit of the suspect though and eventually caught him. Police arrived and placed the man under arrest.
In 2023, a 27-year-old suspect was arrested after he was caught on a surveillance camera raping a pony at a stable south of Hamburg. The 18-year-old pony, which is named “Carrie,” was abused by the man at 1 a.m., with footage showing the man calmly walking onto the property and starting to attack the defenseless animal.
Steffi B. released the footage to German newspaper Bild, which posted stills of the perpetrator on its web publication.
The attack happened in Birkenmoor, which is in Harburg, just a few kilometers from the Hamburg city center.
Even the petting zoo at the park has not been safe. In 2017, a Syrian migrant raped a pony there in front of children.
“My babysitter was out with our son in Görlitzer Park. They witnessed the man sexually assault the pony,” one woman told Berliner Morgenpost at the time. The babysitter took a photo of the man as he raped the pony and provided it to police. The migrant was banned from the petting zoo in response, but it is unclear if he was ever charged by police.
