Pierre-Alain Cottineau, the former candidate of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), has been treated after a suicide attempt at Brest prison. He is being held in the prison during a child sex and torture investigation that investigators said “pushed all the limits of horror.”
Authorities say his life is not in danger.
The incident took place on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in the exercise yard of the Brest prison, also known as L’Hermitage. According to the Ouest-France news outlet, the attempt came days after other prisoners physically attacked him. The paper added that he had already threatened to kill himself when he first arrived at the Breton prison in 2024. In the spring of 2025, he attempted a medication-related suicide as well.
Cottineau, an advocate for LGBT rights before his arrest, has been in pretrial detention since his arrest on Sept. 23, 2024 at Nantes-Atlantique airport, after returning from Tunisia. Investigators from France’s Office for Minors (OFMIN) identified him from images circulating online. He was immediately placed under formal investigation for rape of minors with acts of torture or barbarity and for human trafficking by an organized group.
Subsequent digital forensics on his phone led police to additional footage posted in a Telegram group allegedly administered by Cottineau. One video reportedly showed the abuse of a five-month-old baby boy, identified as the first foster child placed in his care. Other footage featured multiple men participating in the abuse of a toddler, with one scene showing the child crawling on all fours, wearing a collar and leash.
Remix News originally reported on his alleged role in the pedophile ring when the story first broke, which also involved rape and abuse of children with disabilities.
The case, described by investigators as pushing “all the limits of horror,” first came to light in September 2024 when Dutch police discovered an appalling video depicting serious child sexual abuse of a very young child on the darknet. The child, who was believed to be around three years old, appeared to be disabled and reliant on a gastric feeding tube.
According to Le Parisien, one of the accused claimed that Cottineau sedated the children using Xanax, sleeping pills, and poppers hidden in yogurt before the abuse took place.
The Nantes investigation remains open. In early September 2026, Ouest-France reported that prosecutors had added a charge of corruption of a minor.
Four other men, aged between 32 and 53, have also been placed under investigation in the same case. Identified victims include children between five months and four years old, among them a disabled girl placed with Cottineau by child-welfare services after he obtained family-assistant approval in December 2023.
The latest suicide attempt has been independently confirmed by the Brest prosecutor’s office. The 33-year-old Cottineau, from Oudon near Ancenis-Saint-Géréon in Loire-Atlantique, is being treated after the attempt, which was not life-threatening.
The investigation into Cottineau, who was an LFI candidate in 2021, is still open. He remains innocent until proven guilty.
Career as LGBT rights activist
During police interviews he admitted some of the alleged acts and said he had pedophilic urges for years, according to reporting by Le Parisien and Libération. A court-appointed psychiatrist found no mental illness but a sexual-preference disorder with “major potential dangerousness.” The expert said his judgment was not impaired at the time of the alleged acts.
Before his arrest, Cottineau was a familiar figure in the Ancenis area. A former nursing assistant, he obtained departmental approval to foster children and presented himself as an advocate for child protection and LGBT rights.
He co-founded a local LGBT association and helped organize pride events. In 2021, during departmental elections, he ran with Annie Lecat for the LFI party in Ancenis-Saint-Géréon, taking 9.81 percent of the first-round vote. Their platform included environmental issues, local democracy and support for women facing domestic violence.
LFI has since excluded him.
Investigative pieces in a wide variety of French news outlets, such as Le Point and Libération, later examined how earlier reports about him did not lead to an arrest before September 2024, including a July 2024 statement by a former partner at a police station in Morbihan detailing child abuse allegations.
Prison overcrowding and pedophiles targeted
Brest prison has been under strain. In August 2026, Ouest-France reported occupancy near 200 percent and said the facility had, for a time, refused new arrivals. Inmates accused of sexual crimes against children are often targets of violence from other prisoners, a pattern prison staff and unions have described for years.
Ouest-France linked last week’s assault on Cottineau to the current prison conditions, without naming the attackers or detailing injuries suffered by Cottineau.
Notably, these crowded prison conditions are exactly the type of situation exacerbated by mass immigration, while Cottineau’s LFI party is well known for its support of continued immigration. While nearly 25 percent of prisoners are foreigners, while many of the remaining 75 percent are French citizens with a foreign background.
