French PM under growing pressure over Catholic school abuse claims

PAU, France: France´s prime minister was under increasing pressure on Friday after a former teacher at a Catholic school claimed Francois Bayrou was aware of claims of sexual abuse of young boys there in the 1990s but did not act on them.

The embattled prime minister has in recent days faced accusations from the opposition that as education minister in the mid-1990s he knew of widespread physical and sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school to which he sent some of his children.

For the past year prosecutors have been investigating around 100 complaints of alleged violence, sexual assault and rape committed at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school over many decades near the southwestern town of Pau where Bayrou has been mayor since 2014.

On Friday, prosecutors opened a judicial inquiry against one suspect, with former boarders hailing the step as a major move forward. Bayrou, 73, who served as the country´s education minister between 1993 and 1997, has denied any wrong-doing.

On Thursday, Francoise Gullung, who taught mathematics at the boarding school between 1994 and 1996, told French investigative website Mediapart that Bayrou and his wife, who taught religious studies there, had ignored her warnings about the “systemic violence” against the boarders.