Worrying reports from France are emerging on Tuesday afternoon which suggests a player from Ligue 2 side Nimes has been arrested on suspicion of using underage prostitutes.
That’s according to recent claims from RMC Sport, who claim the unnamed player has been taken into police custody.
Breaking | An unnamed Nîmes player has been taken into police custody for alleged use of underage prostitutes, according to RMC Sport. More follows.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) October 19, 2021
Although the offences reported are alleged, the news will certainly be concerning, not just for the world of football, but for society, as a whole.
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Let’s hope the reports are wide of the mark and the accused is deemed to be innocent – although admittedly, the severity of the allegations certainly do raise major concerns.
‘Underaged prostitute’?! Are you kidding?! What a disgraceful statement. There is no such thing, there are only children and in this case, children who are the victims of sexual abuse! Sex trafficking! How utterly disgraceful to under report and play this down in such a way. Extremely irresponsible journalism.
Not entirely true – we don’t know how historic or current these alleged crimes are. If the offences alleged were committed pre 2016 then that would have been during a time that prostitution was legal in France, so long as the sex worker was 18 years old or above. However, the age for sexual consent in the country is 15. Therefore, if the alleged crimes were committed pre-2016 and the prostitute in question was 17 years old, then she would not be deemed to be a ‘child’ but would still be under the legal age required in order to participate in prostitution.
I genuinely hope this helps clear up why my colleague worded this piece the way he has – it is a very murky area, admittedly.