Paris neighbourhood moves to ban ‘sex discos'
The mayor of Paris's family-oriented 15th arrondissement has vowed to put the brakes on an extension to a sex club based in a residential block after the owner said he had received permission to expand the outfit owing to rocketing demand.
La Factory, a libertine club in a plush residence in the rue d'Alleray, organises free-for-all soirées involving a maximum 20 people, the limit for a private gathering in commercial premises after which one needs to ask for a police permit.
Such is the club's success that it organises up to three such meets per day, according to Le Parisien, which spoke to the owner, known only as 'Z'.
As a result, this week, Z announced to loyal customers that he had 'submitted an application to the (state) prefecture' to increase the capacity for such parties, during which generally a woman is 'placed at the centre of the attentions of several men, for an entrance fee of 80 euros'.
He said he planned to create a 'sex disco' in the basement – a former car park several hundred feet squared.
'Our development project has even obtained all the administrative authorisations from the town hall,' he told Le Parisien. 'It's only a matter of weeks now,' he said confidently.
Residents, however, are reportedly opposed to such 'degrading' and 'morally unacceptable' practices, and have called for the mayor to block any extension. 'It's still disturbing. The men who take part in these gang bangs have fantasies of gang rape,' complained one unnamed couple.
With the affair snowballing in the media, Philippe Goujon, Right-wing Republicans mayor of the 15th arrondissement, said he intended to seek a decree banning such activities.
'We are 100 per cent behind the residents,' he said, adding that he promised to 'do everything we can to put a stop' to these sex parties.
'After the Mazan trial, we can't have any more of this sort of thing,' he said, referring to the mass rape trial of Dominique Pelicot who invited dozens of men to his house to rape his wife Gisèle while she was asleep. The case has prompted calls to tackle low-level rape culture in France and add the notion of consent into laws on rape.
However, while morally questionable, the business is 'administratively within the law', said internal sources.
The police have pledged to 'carry out identity checks on people taking part in these events' in order to keep the peace and quiet of the neighbourhood.
However, they have found nothing illegal and a pimping investigation launched after initial complaints from residents was quickly dropped by the Paris public prosecutor's office.
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