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Massoud S., a 19-year-old man, stood trial this Monday at the Aix-en-Provence court for “sexual assault” and “serious abuse or acts of cruelty against a domestic, tame, or captive animal.”
Between February and April, he is accused of at least eight incidents of sexual assault involving goats and a six-month-old lamb at an educational farm.
Despite DNA evidence and phone data, the young man has not changed his story since his initial police detention and completely denies the allegations.
“It’s not possible.” Massoud S., wearing a grey jacket and black trousers, appears focused. His dark eyes remain fixed on the interpreter—despite the presiding judge’s reminders to address the court—as he stands before the Aix-en-Provence tribunal. The 19-year-old, born in Afghanistan, only becomes animated when answering questions, doing so briefly and in English. He is appearing in court this Monday on charges of sexual assault and severe abuse against six animals: goats—one of which died—and a six-month-old lamb.
The acts were committed repeatedly between February and April against these animals, which belonged to the “Un moment” sanctuary and educational farm in Les Pennes-Mirabeau, near Marseille. Cassandra Sortino, the facility’s owner, remains deeply traumatized by the events. “We set up this organization to do good, yet the animals were in danger within our own facility. There is no moral explanation for it,” she says. “We feel like we failed.” She is defending herself without a lawyer, seeking in vain an answer to the question: “Why?”
For her and the volunteers present in the courtroom, the nightmare began in February. After noticing ligature marks on the legs of some animals, she decided to file a police report. The animals also showed vulvar injuries and traces of blood, as confirmed by a veterinarian. After installing a surveillance camera, Cassandra Sortino repeatedly spotted a male figure and observed the same signs of abuse. She visited the police station several times before the defendant was finally arrested in early April—caught in the act behind a goat. He was wearing latex gloves, and his trousers were down.
Despite the evidence—his DNA was found on the animals, and his phone repeatedly pinged cell towers near the farm—Massoud S. completely denies the allegations. “I don’t know how to explain it,” he replies when questioned by the judges. Regarding the night of his arrest, he claims he missed his train to Marseille, where he lives in an asylum-seeker center in the 3rd arrondissement. “That place was right next to the station; as far as I was concerned, there was nowhere else to stay for the night,” he explains. “I wish I could have understood.”
The questioning sometimes feels like a dialogue of the deaf, hampered by the laborious translation into English. Having arrived in France in November 2025, Massoud S. claims to have lost his family in an airstrike in Afghanistan during the war. “After recounting my story and the impact on my mental health, I received treatment,” he recalls, describing it as “very heavy.” When asked about his strict religious upbringing, he says he feels “full of shame.”
So he admitted that he had in fact been at the animal farm and shelter, but only as a place to bed down for the night. As for the accusation that he raped a half-dozen animals, he flatly denied it, even though his DNA was found inside the animals: “That’s impossible” he said.
During the psychiatric evaluation conducted while he was in pre-trial detention, the doctor reported no signs of mental disorder and noted a form of partial acknowledgment of the facts. “They’re making a huge fuss over it, even though they’re just animals,” he reportedly said. The defendant explains that the person who committed the act likely did so to avoid “raping a woman,” reasoning that a goat wouldn’t recognize him. In court, he struggles to recall these statements, which were highlighted by the lawyers representing animal rights groups acting as civil parties. “I’m a normal person,” he insists in his defense.
He denied being guilty of raping the animals, but he also defended the practice to the psychiatrist examining him: why were people “making a big deal out of it…it’s just animals.” And he even offered justification for animal rape: the person who had done this did so, he claimed, in order to “avoid raping a woman.” Since he was the animal rapist in question, he ought to know. A Muslim migrant, far from home, feeling those sexual urges with the fierce urgency of now, could hardly be blamed if he were to rape a girl or woman, but how thoughtful of him to spare humans and instead chose to have sexual congress with animals. And Massoud S. claims: “I am a normal person.” And so he would be considered, if he were back in Afghanistan, where such animal rapes are not unheard of. But he is in France, where such things are not “normal” at all.
Indeed, the only religion whose clerics have solemnly considered sex with animals, and have carefully set out the “rules” that should govern such sex, is Islam. It was that most learned of Shi’a theologians, Ayatollah Khomeini himself, who set out the dating Do’s-and-Don’ts for Muslims having sex with sheep, cows, camels. Here is what he wrote in his “Tahrirolvasyleh,” fourth volume, 1990:
“A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on [including goats, the chief love interest of Massoud S.]. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, but selling the meat to a neighboring village is reasonable.”
That’s good to know, because otherwise a Muslim might commit the unpardonable faux pas of serving the meat of a camel — or of a cow, or of a sheep (or a goat) — he has just sodomized to people of his own village, and that, as Ayatollah Khomeini reminds us, would never do.
Massoud S. insists he is a “perfectly normal person.” And so he is — in Afghanistan. But in France, he is rightly regarded as a sexual pervert. One more example, I’m afraid, of how millions of Muslim now in Europe cannot be expected to integrate into the larger society. And one more reason to call a halt to Muslim migration, and to deport as many Muslims as possible — the illegals, and those convicted of crimes, for a start — back to their countries of origin.