French PM's office admits he did meet judge over Catholic school rape probe
The saga of the sexual abuse scandal at the Notre Dame de Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France, and just what the current French prime minister François Bayrou knew about it at the time, has taken another twist. Speaking during a Mediapart broadcast, Bayrou's daughter Hélène Perlant, who was a pupil at the school, confirmed that her father had indeed gone to the home of Judge Christian Mirande back in 1998 to speak about an ongoing criminal investigation into rape allegations against the school's former headteacher. François Bayrou had hitherto denied doing so. But following his daughter's comments the prime minister's office formally acknowledged that a meeting did indeed take place at the time. An opposition Member of Parliament has now called on the prime minister to resign for “lying several times” over the case. Mathieu Magnaudeix, David Perrotin and Antton Rouget report.
AA judge, a gendarme, and now his own daughter. For nearly three months, France's prime minister François Bayrou has sworn he knew nothing of the physical violence and sexual abuse that took place at Notre-Dame de Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France. He also denied ever having met Judge Mirande, the magistrate tasked with leading the 1998 probe into former headteacher Father Pierre Silviet-Carricart over allegations he raped a child. The priest was held in custody and then, quite unexpectedly, freed a few days later. Father Carricart was subsequently discreetly spirited away to the Vatican and took his own life two years later, just after a second rape complaint was filed.
