Ten guilty of cyber bullying France's first lady after false transgender claims

Ten people have been found guilty of cyber bullying France's first lady Brigitte Macron.

The online claims were about her gender and sexuality, including allegations that she is a transgender woman who was born a man. The French president's wife told TF1 ahead of the verdict that the online attacks against her appeared endless and that she launched legal action to "set an example" in the fight against harassment.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were accused of posting numerous "particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious" comments about Ms Macron's alleged trans identity. They were also accused of linking the 24-year age gap between Ms Macron, 72, and her husband Emmanuel Macron, 48, to paedophilia.

The couple, who have been married since 2007, first met at secondary school, where he was a student and she was a teacher. Some of the posts have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

The defendants were handed sentences ranging from cyber bullying awareness training and six-month social media bans to suspended prison sentences of up to eight months at the court in Paris. Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who also goes by Amandine Roy online, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the false rumour of Ms Macron being born a man online.

The self-proclaimed medium published a four-hour video discussing Ms Macron on her YouTube channel in 2021. She was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence.

Gallerist and writer Bertrand Scholler, 55, was also given a six-month suspended sentence for allegedly spreading the claims, which he vowed to appeal. "This is horrible.

It's abominable," he told reporters at the Paris court. "This shows just how far French society is drifting toward less freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech no longer exists." Another defendant, Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, 41, who is known as Zoe Sagan on social media, also shared claims about Ms Macron's gender identity and her relationship with Mr Macron online. His X account was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations.

Poirson-Atlan was given a suspended prison sentence of eight months. Several defendants told the court their comments were intended as humour or satire, and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.

Ms Macron's lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said after the verdicts were announced that "what is important is that there are immediate cyber bullying awareness trainings, and for some of the defendants, a ban on using their social media accounts". The French first lady did not attend the two-day trial in October, but her daughter from her first marriage, Tiphaine Auziere, testified about the "deterioration" of her mother's life as the online harassment intensified.

"She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her," Ms Auziere told the court, adding that the impact has affected the entire family, including Ms Macron's grandchildren. Read more from Sky News:Children exposed to violent content onlineFemale athletes may quit over online abuse It comes after years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging Ms Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually her brother's name.

Mr and Ms Macron are also pursuing a US defamation lawsuit against the right-wing influencer and podcaster Candace Owens, who has also claimed Ms Macron was born male..