PARIS: A French court has jailed five men over paying for sexual acts with a 12-year-old girl, in a rare instance of such a case being brought before a court in the country.
Under French law selling sex is allowed, but it is illegal to exploit someone or pay for sex, placing the criminal responsibility on pimps and clients.
Clients are usually issued a fine, but sanctions can be tougher when the person being exploited is a minor.
A court north of Paris on Wednesday handed the five men an 18-month sentence, 12 months of which were suspended, for paying for sex with the girl who was pimped after running away from home in November last year.
A would-be client alerted the police after being shocked that she looked so young, and they used CCTV to track down other men who had visited her at two hotels in the town of Herblay northwest of Paris.
In court five defendants claimed they had no idea how old she was as it was too dark to see, and a sixth was acquitted.
"I'm sorry that she got herself into such a mess," said one of the accused, a 32-year-old ambulance driver.
"I wouldn't have wanted my 13-year-old daughter to prostitute herself."
A 25-year-old car mechanic said it was too dark to be able to tell.
"It was dark, the light was turned down low, she was wearing makeup. It never crossed my mind," he said.
The prosecution showed CCTV images of the girl in a pair of spotty red Minnie the Mouse pyjamas a few hours before the arrival of clients.
The defence argued the men had responded to an ad online advertising services from an adult aged 19 or 23.
Of the nine clients caught on CCTV entering her room, only two turned back.
Just one of the accused, a 35-year-old salesman, said he had had second thoughts.
"I thought she must be 17, 18 or 16 years old... I started rolling a joint and chatted to her for a bit. After 15 minutes, I decided not to do anything. I gave her 50 euros and left," he said.
He was the only one of the six defendants to be acquitted.
The three pimps were handed a three-year jail term, two-year jail term and a suspended 18-month sentence in a separate trial in March.
The girl's lawyer told Le Monde newspaper that he did not file a complaint against the clients for rape of a minor as she was "fragile" and could not deal with a prolonged criminal trial.
Some 20,000 minors are sexually exploited in France, according to rights group Acting Against the Prostitution of Children.
The group, which was a plaintiff in the case, said it was a rare one against prostitution clients to make it into a court.
