François Bayrou accused of getting ignored sexual assault on minors on the boarding faculty Notre-Dame de Betharram within the Nineteen Nineties | EUROtoday

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François Bayrou in Bordeaux, January 31, 2025.

François Bayrou was conscious, from the tip of the Nineteen Nineties, accusations of sexual assault in a Catholic institution in Béarn frequented by his kids, say witnesses interviewed Wednesday February 5 by the Agency France-Presse (AFP), after a survey of Mediapart On the Dénegations of the Prime Minister. Solicited by AFP, Matignon didn’t react at this stage.

The Pau prosecution has been finishing up the investigation for a yr in 100 complaints for violence, sexual assault and rape in Notre-Dame de Bétharram, close to the Seventies and Nineteen Nineties. The head of presidency, initially from the area , educated a number of of his kids on this establishment, the place his spouse additionally taught, catechism in keeping with the investigation media.

In 1996, when Mr. Bayrou was Minister of National Education, complaints had already denounced the bodily violence of a supervisor in Betharram, sentenced later. Then in 1998, a former director of the establishment had been indicted and imprisoned for rape. In March 2024, François Bayrou had declared that Parisian that “The rumor, twenty-five years ago, suggested that there had been slaps at the boarding school”alternatively, not having “Never heard (…) sexual risk “.

Read additionally | Article reserved for our subscribers Notre-Dame de Betharram case: forty-three new complaints filed

“Bayrou was absolutely aware”

Of the ” lies “writing Mediapartfor whom the present Prime Minister “Could not ignore the accusations which already weighed on the establishment in the late 1990s”. The web site relies on a number of witnesses, together with a trainer and a scholar of a scholar who reiterated their phrases to AFP.

Françoise Gullung, professor of arithmetic at Betharram from 1994 to 1996, stated that she then alerted the authorities a number of instances to “Denounce an atmosphere of aggressiveness and abnormal tensions”. “I notably spoke of François Bayrou in a long way to tell him that it was necessary to be vigilant (…) He cleared that I was telling him that I was telling him ”she says today, adding having “Also despatched a letter to the General Council”which he chaired at the time.

Francis “Bayrou had his son in the identical class” That mine, tells, under the cover of anonymity, the father who had filed a complaint in 1996. “Bayrou was completely conscious (…) He had no response. »»

In 1998, the present Prime Minister had additionally met the choose in control of the rape file, as reported The world And The Pyrenees Republic. He ensured the Parisian don’t have “Never heard about”on the time, such accusations. “I don’t understand why he denies today”advised Mediapart the previous Justice of the Peace.

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Questioned by AFP, Alain Esquerre, one of many victims of violence, on the origin of the collective denunciation of the information final yr, judges that the place of François Bayrou turned “Untenable” and says “Exist” that he “Continue not to position yourself”.

Read additionally the survey | Article reserved for our subscribers Former college students of the personal Catholic institution Notre-Dame de Betharram denounce a “regime of terror”

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