The French prime minister, François Bayrou, failed to act to prevent physical and sexual abuse at a private Catholic school in south-west France when he served as education minister between 1993 and 1997, a parliamentary report has said, reports The Guardian.
The damning report issued by French lawmakers on Wednesday comes after a long parliamentary inquiry into allegations of decades of physical abuse, rape and sexual assault at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school near Pau in south-west France.
The lawmakers also heard from survivors’ groups from many other schools across France, describing how children had been subjected to “monstrous [and] terrible crimes” of “unprecedented severity and of absolute sadism.”
The report found what it called “persistent” violence in public and private schools across France and accused the state of failing to act.
Bayrou, 74, has in recent months faced accusations from opposition lawmakers in parliament that as education minister he knew of physical and sexual abuse at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, to which he sent some of his children and where his wife taught catechism.
He has denied any wrongdoing, saying he only found out about the allegations of abuse from the media.