French court to debate sex toy row

The manager of a French shop selling sex toys went on trial Wednesday to determine whether he is violating pornography laws by selling his products within 200 metres (yards) of a school. The manager of the "Love Shop", 41-year-old Nicolas Busnel, faces up to two years in prison and a 30,000 euro ($40,000) fine after two Christian groups filed complaints that his shop is within 90 metres of an elementary school. The two plaintiffs, the National Confederation of Catholic Family Associations (CNAFC) and the CLER Love and Family association, are also asking for 10,000 euros each in damages. Busnel denies the shop, at 69 rue Saint Martin in central Paris, sells pornography and says its products such as dildos and vibrators are simply of an erotic nature. "There are as many definitions of pornography as there are people," said his lawyer, Richard Malka. As the trial opened, Malka said limiting the sale of sex toys within 200 metres of educational institutions would mean the only places they could be sold would be "cemeteries, parks and on train tracks". But Henri de Beauregard, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said there was little doubt the shop's products were of a pornographic nature. "You can say that a sex shop is a 'love shop,' that a dildo is a 'sex toy'... but these are just words," he said. "The simple truth is that we have here a sex shop that sells pornography!" The trial opened with Malka making a motion for the case to be dismissed as unconstitutional, but it was rejected by the court. The court was to later hear testimony from witnesses including Busnel and a sexologist.