A lay supervisor targeted by accusations of rape was dismissed from his position in a Catholic middle school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the management of the establishment announced on Friday, faced with more than 30 complaints from former students.
A preliminary investigation was opened by the Pau public prosecutor's office at the beginning of February, after the filing of twenty complaints and 13 others were filed this week according to the prosecutor.
They mainly relate to acts of physical violence but also sexual assault and rape which were allegedly committed in the 1980s in the establishment located in Lestelle-Bétharram, near Lourdes.
Six priests and two lay people are incriminated.
One of the lay people, who was still employed by the Le Beau Rameau school complex, formerly called Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram,
“is no longer in post”
since Wednesday, indicates the management in a press release confirming information from South West.
“A precautionary principle”
, justifies the head of the establishment, Romain Clercq, without however
“calling into question the presumption of innocence”
.
The establishment adds that it is at the disposal of the Pau prosecutor
“to fully collaborate in the investigation in the sole interest of the victims”
and has indicated
“its desire to become a civil party”
.
Two complaints not prescribed
The lay person concerned, now in his sixties, is the target of eight complaints, five of which relate to sexual assault and rape and three to violence and beatings.
If the 33 complaints concern facts for the most part prescribed, two of them, with criminal qualifications, are not, told AFP Alain Esquerre who was a student at Bétharram between 1980 and 1985. For four months, the who denounces the physical violence suffered then, collects the testimonies, which accumulate, and creates the files.
“I don’t even have time to process all the stories anymore
,” he says.
Brice, 48, filed a complaint for rapes and violence that occurred between 1984 and 1991 during his studies at the institution.
“At the time, we told our parents about the beatings but they didn’t believe us.
As for the rapes, I had never talked about it
,” he confided to AFP.
His complaint is one of only two, at this stage, not to be statute-barred.
“If I did it, it was for others, I have mourned this story, I no longer cry about it.
We can't save everyone, but if my complaint can save a few, that's something."