Inquiry accuses French PM of failing to act over school abuse

Time of India

a day ago

AI- Generated Image
PARIS: Physical and sexual violence at a Catholic school in France persisted for years without any action from Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who served as education minister between 1993 and 1997, a parliamentary inquiry said on Wednesday.
The scathing report issued by several French lawmakers, who have investigated the claims of abuse at the Notre-Dame de Betharram boarding school, also pointed to "persistent violence" in other French schools, accusing the state of failing to act.
Bayrou, 74, has in recent months faced accusations from the opposition that as education minister he knew of widespread physical and sexual abuse over many decades at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school to which he sent some of his children.
"In the absence of action that the former education minister... had the means to take, this physical and sexual violence against the pupils of Betharram continued for years," the two co-rapporteurs of the inquiry, Violette Spillebout and Paul Vannier, said in a 330-page report.
A member of Bayrou's team took issue with the findings that accused the prime minister of inaction.
"It's exactly the opposite," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"No minister after Francois Bayrou organised any verification checks or inspections."
The centrist politician has denied any wrongdoing and denounced what he calls a campaign of "destruction" against him.
"Many of the testimonies we received were beyond my imagination," Vannier told broadcaster France Inter on Wednesday.
"I couldn't imagine acts of torture, children being injected with water, children being deprived of sleep, children being deprived of food to punish them in endless sadistic games for years and years, devastating entire lives," he said.
The conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry, which heard from 135 people including survivors of abuse at other schools, add further pressure on Bayrou, who survived a vote of no confidence on Tuesday.
The commission of inquiry is not expected however to refer the matter to courts.
Named by President Emmanuel Macron in December to bring much-needed stability to the French government, Bayrou's minority coalition depends on the far-right to stay in office and risks being ejected in the autumn in a looming standoff over the budget.
'Absolute sadism'
"This commission of inquiry was a thorough investigation into the unthinkable: children, all over France, subjected to monstrous acts," wrote Fatiha Keloua Hachi, who presided over the commission.
Over the past months, lawmakers heard of sexual violence and "physical violence too, sometimes of an unprecedented severity, of absolute sadism," she said.
In mid-May, Bayrou was questioned for five and a half hours by the lawmakers investigating the violence, in one of the most delicate moments of his time in office.
He struck a defiant tone at the time and said he only knew of allegations of sexual abuse from media reports.
Centrist Spillebout and Vannier, a lawmaker with the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), said that violence at the Betharram school was systemic.
The violence "was - at least in part - institutionalised", they said, with "a community of prominent figures providing unwavering support".
The lawmakers stressed that the abuse at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school was also "far from being a unique case".
Such violence still persists in private schools, particularly Catholic establishments, the authors said, pointing to a "strong code of silence."
The rapporteurs also deplored "a failing state," with "virtually non-existent" controls and an "inadequate" system of prevention and reporting.
They listed a range of proposals to address the violence including creating a compensation fund for victims.
Around 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff at Betharram of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004.
Some of the boarders said the experience had scarred them for life, recounting how some priests visited boys at night.
Bayrou's eldest daughter, Helene Perlant, accused the clergy running the school of systemic abuse, saying a priest beat her during summer camp when she was 14. She said however her father did not know about the incident.