A former teacher at a private school in Bordeaux will be tried for raping 17 students and sexually assaulting six others over several years.

A former teacher at a private school in Bordeaux will stand trial for raping 17 students and sexually assaulting six others over several years, a judicial source said Thursday, while a complaint for failure to report a crime has been filed against the school. According to the indictment seen by AFP, the 54-year-old father, who taught at the prestigious Saint-Genès La Salle Catholic school, has been referred to the Gironde Criminal Court, as revealed by the newspaper "Sud Ouest." He faces 20 years in prison and has partially admitted to the charges. A total of around 30 victims, girls aged 10 and 11 at the time, have been identified.

According to his lawyer, Éric Grosselle, the accused "denies the most serious charges," for which there is "no evidence." The teacher was indicted and placed in pretrial detention in June 2023 after being reported by fifth-grade students whom he had filmed in the shower during a trip to the Arcachon Basin, by placing his phone under the shower stall doors. An investigation was opened into these acts of voyeurism, and photos seized from the teacher's computer led to him also being charged with sexual assaults committed during school trips since 2017—acts he admitted to while in police custody, according to the prosecutor's office.

During the lunch break

The judicial investigation was subsequently extended to include allegations of rape, reported by 17 former students between 2008 and 2012, which the accused denies. The complainants accuse him of having played a "taste game" in his class during the lunch break, in which he would blindfold the students and make them guess different foods before inserting his penis into their mouths. According to a 2011 letter included in the case file, the school administration, alerted by a student's mother about the existence of this "game," summoned the teacher.

Following this "clarification meeting," he was reprimanded, without any further procedure or investigation. Last November, parents filed a complaint against persons unknown for failure to report a crime, also targeting the head of the school at the time, who co-signed the letter sent to the teacher in 2011. Twelve years later, a few days after the teacher was formally charged, the other signatory, who headed the primary school within the school complex, committed suicide.