Over 100 attacks on children in Paris schools: investigation underway
Paris police are investigating over 100 assaults against children in schools, nurseries and leisure centres. The suspects are school activity leaders.
Over 100 attacks on children in Paris schools: investigation underway
The judicial authorities in Paris have opened investigations into more than one hundred assaults committed against children in municipal school establishments, nurseries and leisure centres. Several victims are only three or four years old, reports Expressen citing The Guardian.
The alleged acts range from rape to physical and psychological violence. Children are reported to have been pushed, pulled by the hair, insulted or forced to eat until they vomited. Cases of sexual violence involve children aged three to four years old.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau clarified the scope of the investigations: 84 nurseries, approximately 20 primary schools and around ten leisure centres are involved.
The suspects are school activity leaders, agents recruited by local authorities to supervise children during breaks, meals and out-of-school activities. They are not directly employed by the schools.
One particularly shocking case concerns a three-year-old girl who is reported to have been raped by an activity leader in western Paris. The same defendant is reported to have subsequently sexually assaulted a boy of the same age after being transferred to another establishment following complaints.
Parent associations have denounced years of mobilisation to obtain a response from the authorities. They criticise notably the lack of checks during recruitment and the monitoring of staff.
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, who himself was a victim of sexual assaults by a school activity leader during his childhood, has announced a plan worth 215 million Swedish crowns (approximately 19 million euros) to combat this scourge.
– The mistake was to consider these events as isolated cases. In reality, they reveal a systemic risk, and perhaps also a culture of silence, he declared to the newspaper Le Monde.
Between January and April, 78 school employees were suspended, 31 of whom are suspected of sexual assault. A trial opens on Tuesday against an activity leader accused of sexual assaults on five children aged three to five years. In June, a verdict is expected in another case where an activity leader is being prosecuted for assaults on nine ten-year-old girls.
Source: Expressen