Under oath, French PM Bayrou denies covering up sexual abuse at Catholic school
In testimony to a parliamentary committee hearing, French Prime Minister François Bayrou continued to deny he knew of sexual abuse allegations at a Catholic school in the Pyrenees when he served as education minister in the 1990s.
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Bayrou said he only learned of the alleged abuse at Notre-Dame de Bétharram through media reports, and insisted he had not received any official information when he was Education Minister from 1993 to 1997.
"I had nothing to hide," he told the committee Wednesday, indicating he was ready to cooperate with the inquiry into allegations of widespread abuse for many decades at the Catholic boarding school near the town of Pau, where he has been mayor since 2014.
Around 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004 at the school where Bayrou sent many of his children, and where his wife taught religious studies.
"For me, this hearing is very important. It is very important for the boys and girls who have been victims of violence, particularly sexual violence, for decades," he said.
During the questioning, Bayrou was asked about claims by a former maths teacher, Francoise Gullung, who taught at Bétharram from 1994-1996, and is considered a whistleblower in the affair, that she had alerted him.
In her testimony to the commission at the end of March, Gullung said she had written to Bayrou, and then told him orally, about what had been taking place at the school.
Bayrou denied ever getting the information, and told the commission that she had “made up” statements.
Bayrou has repeatedly denied covering up the abuse, and says claims that he did so are part of a campaign to destroy him politically.
During the questioning, Bayrou accused one of the committee’s two co-rapporteurs, Paul Vannier, of the hard left France Unbowed, of trying to “fuel a scandal”, and also said he did not feel that the commission was "completely objective".
Bayrou has managed to survive a no-confidence vote in parliament, but the allegations in the Bétharram affair have damaged his credibility.
The French president has thrown his support behind Bayrou – his sixth Prime Minister
"We have talked about it a lot and I know that I have confidence in him," he said during an interview on TF1 Tuesday evening.
(with newswires)
