How an investigation into kids’s rapes has been capable of volatilize | EUROtoday

On Apr 17, 2025

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PSmall dozen adolescents heard after which … nothing! How does an investigation of such a scale, carried out within the second half of the Nineties on acts of sexual assault and alleged rape dedicated for greater than a decade by a supervisor of boarders on school college students, might go unnoticed, to the purpose of evaporating with out leaving any hint? “If there had been one, I would have heard of it,” is stunned at present Jean-Louis Tabouret, first deputy on the time after which mayor from 2001 to 2008 of this city in Maine-et-Loire of lower than 3,000 inhabitants.

It was he who, in 2005 as a writer, even proceeded, for safety causes, to the ultimate closure of the school (which he himself attended), a part of the premises has since been transformed into Epide (public institution of protection integration).

And but, the testimonies collected by The level are simply as formal. In addition to the endured abuse, many former college students keep in mind completely visiting the gendarmes at house to be questioned in 1997. Problem, “many were external”, specifies Loïc Dusseau, president of the pleasant of former college students and buddies of Combrée. However, it was primarily on the boarding faculty, or throughout mountain vacation camps, that abuses have been reported. Besides, most of those hearings came about within the presence of the mom, the daddy, even each subsequent to it. What anesthetize any confidence when questioning an authority. “They asked me if I had suffered things in front of my parents and I did not dare to answer them yes,” sighs certainly one of them, who needed to stay nameless.

“I have no trace of all this”

At the Angers prosecution, the place the case is beginning to make noise, we strive by all means to make the archives communicate, computerized since 2011 solely. “I am continuing my research, but to date, I have not found the mark of an investigation carried out in 1997 during which many children were heard,” replied the general public prosecutor Éric Bouillard, who was however accountable for minors between 1996 and 2000 within the capital of Anjou. “It is possible that my memory is lacking, but all the people with whom I worked at that time confirmed that I did not know about it. However, I don’t exclude anything. »»

These “people” are the gendarmes of the Pouancé brigade, on which Combrée depends. One of them, today retired, confirms to us that it was “recently contacted” by Éric Bouillard, but had no element to bring him, failing to remember anything. Another former gendarmerie commander, also retired and who exercised at that time in this area, is just as confused. “I have no trace of all this,” he replies.

Two testimonies left aside?

However, “traces”, there are some. Already, there are these two complaints filed for “sexual assault imposed on a minor of 15 years” in 2016 and in 2019 which, struck by prescription, did not allow to trigger the opening of a judicial information … But two other testimonies, at least, could have changed the situation twenty years earlier. That of Henri (assumed first name), first, who, once leaving the college, tried to alert.

“In the fall of 1992, I met the former director of the institution and I said to him:” Do you know that serious things happen? (The prefect of discipline) attacks children! ” Since I had no evidence, he told me that we couldn’t accuse that, that we could attack me. He threatened me more than listening, finally. Five years later, when Stéphane (borrowed first name) learns that former comrades were questioned about the alleged actions of the defendant, of which he too was the victim, he decided to call the gendarmes of Pouancé. “I told them that I had elements, that I wanted to be heard and even file a complaint, but I was told that it did not concern me. Suddenly, I did not go further, ”he regrets at present.

In Dinard, a name for witnesses is launched

Henri lastly took the plunge and filed a rape grievance originally of April. Esther, assaulted in the course of the 1982-1983 faculty yr, imitated it a couple of days later and, on his workplace, the lawyer Angevin Romaric Raymond, solicited by different victims, would put together a collective grievance. “These are the first acts of a new investigation that we opened and which is entrusted to the gendarmerie,” stated the general public prosecutor of Angers, Éric Bouillard, to France 3 Pays de la Loire. “What could be completed legally in order that these circumstances escape the prescription can be completed. »»

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Including taking an curiosity within the exercise of the alleged aggressor’s spouse, who was a maternal assistant. Including, too, to contact the Saint-Malo prosecution (Ille-et-Vilaine), on which Dinard relies upon, a metropolis during which the alleged attacker settled after leaving Combrée and the place he labored as boarding faculty director from 1997 to 2006 on the Solacroup Institute. “There will of course be checks on these points,” assures us the Justice of the Peace. Checks that the Breton institution has additionally diligented by launching a name for witnesses on its web site. “We are now available for the needs of the investigations that could take place,” says the construction.

The truth stays that the time of the investigation might nicely find yourself enjoying in favor of the principal involved: 79 years outdated and presumed harmless, he’s at the moment hospitalized “for several months”, in line with his spouse, within the south of France.

https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/affaire-de-combree-comment-une-enquete-sur-des-viols-d-enfants-a-bien-pu-se-volatiliser-16-04-2025-2587542_23.php