An investigation into sexual assault on a minor was opened in Pau after the complaint filed in September 2021, shortly after the start of the school year, by the parents of a third-year student from the Apprentices college…
An investigation into sexual assault on a minor was opened in Pau after the complaint filed in September 2021, shortly after the start of the school year, by the parents of a 14-year-old third-year student from the Apprentis d’Auteuil college.
The facts would have taken place within the framework of the boarding school of the private college Sainte-Bernadette, avenue Léon-Blum in Pau, on the floor reserved for girls. The alleged perpetrator, an Oloronais in his forties, had worked as a night watchman since the establishment moved from Audaux to Pau in 2018.
“The young girl brought the charges, the employee was laid off and subsequently dismissed, in September”, specifies the regional management of the Apprentis d’Auteuil.
A first case in 2019
According to our information, the same man had been at the heart of a first affair in 2019 which had greatly shaken the internal structure, since the night watchman had been suspected by several of his colleagues of having a romantic and sexual affair with a woman. ninth grade student, now 17 years old.
An internal investigation had been carried out, assured in January 2020 the regional management of the Apprentices of Auteuil, which concluded with a “rumor”. “He had been accused, but there were no convincing facts”, she abounds today.
The company had therefore supported its employee by filing a complaint alongside him for slanderous denunciation. The student had already left the school. The investigation by the Pau prosecutor’s office will not be followed up.
Away from the girls… for a while
Several directors have succeeded one another at the Sainte-Bernadette college since its installation in Pau, a turnover which also affects teachers and supervisors. According to our information, the educational team had, in 2019, tried to limit the night watchman’s contact with the oldest girls, until the arrival of a new management at the end of 2020 who reorganized the services and again entrusted this employee with the supervision of the girls’ boarding school.