An Afghan national who arrived in France late last year has been convicted of sexually abusing multiple goats and a young lamb at a pedagogical farm and animal sanctuary near Marseille.
Massoud S., aged 19, was sentenced on June 22 by the Aix-en-Provence criminal court to 30 months in prison and given a permanent ban from French territory.
The court found him guilty of sexual assault and acts of cruelty to animals after hearing evidence that he had repeatedly attacked at least five goats and a six-month-old lamb between February and April this year.
One of the goats died from the internal injuries inflicted.
The offences took place at Le Refuge d’un Moment, a small animal rescue sanctuary and educational/petting farm in Les Pennes-Mirabeau.
The farm’s owner, Cassandra Sortino, described discovering animals with their legs tied, serious genital injuries, and signs of extreme distress.
Newly installed surveillance cameras eventually captured the suspect in the act, on one occasion with his trousers down and wearing latex gloves.
DNA evidence from semen samples matched him on several animals, and his phone data placed him at the farm on multiple nights.
During the hearing, which lasted just one hour, Massoud S. denied the charges.
According to news outlet 20 Minutes, when questioned he told the court: “I am someone normal.”
He also minimalised the facts, stating, “We’re making a whole big deal out of it when they’re just animals”.
Massoud lives in an asylum seeker center in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille. He said he lost his family in a bombing in Afghanistan.
During the psychiatric evaluation, conducted while he was in pretrial detention, the doctor reported no mental disorder.
He also stated that the person who did it had certainly done so in order not to “rape a woman,” because the goat wouldn’t recognise him.
In front of the court, Massoud said he struggled to remember these statements, though lawyers of the farm reminded him of it.
The case has provoked widespread disgust in France, with animal welfare groups and local residents expressing horror at the brutality.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation and others have condemned the attacks, while the farm owners spoke of deep trauma and a sense of moral failure for not having been able to protect the animals in their care.
The conviction comes only months after the suspect entered France irregularly from Afghanistan in November 2025 and while he was still awaiting residency decisions.
It has reignited broader questions about integration standards, cultural compatibility, and the effectiveness of vetting processes for asylum seekers and irregular migrants.
Critics argue that such extreme cases expose the limits of current migration policy and the difficulties of enforcing basic societal norms with individuals from vastly different backgrounds.
French courts have imposed a territorial ban, but enforcement of deportation orders for foreign offenders remains inconsistent.
Record number of foreign-born residents in Europe reaches 64.2 million.
Asylum applications also reflected this pattern. In 2025, first-time claims totalled 669,365, a 26.6 per cent decline from the previous year, with Spain (141,000), Italy (127,000), France (116,000) and… pic.twitter.com/QcnGUQDXMt
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 24, 2026
