Asylum seeker who 'raped 5 goats' says 'I am a normal person'

An asylum seeker accused of ‘raping six animals’, leaving one dead, claims he was a “normal person”. Known only as Massoud S, the 19-year-old appeared in court on Monday, June 22, is alleged to have sexually assaulted five goats and a six-month-old lamb, at an animal sanctuary and educational farm in Pennes-Mirabeau, near Marseille in France.

Police caught Afghanistan-born Massoud S in the act, behind a goat with his trousers lowered and latex gloves on. Despite this he denied all the charges during the trial at Aix-en-Provence courthouse. He abused the animals from February to April this year at Le Refuge d’un Moment animal sanctuary.

During the trial, Massoud S continued to claim his innocence despite DNA evidence being found and police arresting him during the sickening act. He told the court “I’m a normal person.”

In mitigation he claimed that he missed his train back to Marseille, where he lives in an asylum seeker centre. He told the court that the sanctuary was close to the train station and had no option but to stay the night there.

Animal sanctuary owner Cassandra Sortino said staff became suspicious in February after finding animals with rope marks on their legs, injuries to their vulvas and traces of blood, reports French newspaper 20 Minutes.

This prompted CCTV to be set up around those animals that had been injured and managed to capture a man’s silhouette several times with the horrific abuse discovered the following day.

After repeatedly presenting the evidence to police, Sortino helped prompt an operation that led to the suspect being caught in the act in April.

Massoud S said he came to France in November 2025 after losing his family in wartime bombings in Afghanistan, adding that the ordeal had severely affected his mental health.

A psychiatric assessment carried out during his pretrial detention reportedly found that he told a doctor: “They’re making a huge fuss about it when they’re just animals.”

In addition to receiving a 30-month prison sentence, he was banned from French territory and placed on the register of sexual and violent offenders.

Despite the conviction, sanctuary owner Cassandra Sortino said she is still searching for answers to better understand his actions. “We can’t explain it morally,” she said. “We feel like we’ve failed.”