Overview

• The Pau prosecutor confirmed a criminal inquiry for aggravated violence has been open since June following a referral from the education inspectorate.
• The investigation is assigned to the Nay gendarmerie, which has recorded two complaints for incidents dated 1965–1967 and 1975–1982.
• A victims' collective formed in March said at least four former pupils have filed complaints alleging torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and physical and psychological violence spanning 1965–1996.
• The collective says the complaints target several supervisors and teachers, both religious and lay, including one person still active, and a former teacher has testified about a priest knocking a student to the ground in the 1970s.
• About twenty testimonies concerning roughly fifteen potential victims describe beatings, courtyard punishments in pyjamas, sexual touching, and suspected rape, with the case surfacing in the context of the nearby Bétharram scandal.