'Supermarket For Sexual Predators': Victims Of Abuse At Elite French Boarding School Speak Out

Last Updated:July 01, 2025, 20:36 IST

The sexual abuse scandal linked to the Notre-Dame de Bétharram is thought to be the biggest in French history prompting a #MeTooSchools moment for the country

The Notre-Dame de Betharram institution in Lestelle-Betharram, France. (Image: Gaizka IROZ/AFP)

At 14, Pascal Gélie – inspired by the Robin Williams-starrer Dead Poets Society – acutely felt the need to attend boarding school and begged his parents to send him to one such elite Catholic institution in France. But, 24 hours in, he realised his mistake.

The brochure for the Notre-Dame de Bétharram in the Pyrenees, which boasted swimming in summer and skiing in winter, was nothing like the “sport and friendship" he had expected.

“On the first night, I realised I’d made a terrible mistake," Gélie told The Guardian. “There were 40 of us in a dormitory with decrepit mattresses. When I whispered to another boy for some toilet paper to take to the bathroom, the supervisor grabbed me by the face and pointed to the stone terrace outside. Someone told me to take my coat because you could be forced to stand outside for hours in the cold and damp. I was made to stand there all night."

“That was just the start: regular blows to the head, children hit so hard they were bloodied and knocked unconscious. I saw one boy’s hair ripped out. One was hit so hard, he lost 40% of his hearing. Sometimes we would all be made to stand beside our beds for hours at night because someone whispered, or our beds were upturned with us in them. It was absolute terror," he was quoted.

Gélie, now 51 years old and resident of Bordeaux, is part one of a group of former pupils from the private Catholic boarding school, Notre-Dame de Bétharram. The abuse scandal linked to the school – accounts of violence, rape and sexual assault – is thought to be the biggest in French history prompting a #MeTooSchools moment for the country.

The victims of the Bétharram scandal have spoken about their experiences as pupils of the school, a day before a parliamentary inquiry is due to publish its report and 50 recommendations on preventing violence in education.

The Catholic school, which is located in the foothills of the Pyrenees near the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, has become a focal point in France’s political landscape. Prime Minister François Bayrou’s name has been linked to the scandal from the beginning as his wife taught catechism there and he even sent several of his children there.

In fact, his eldest daughter, 53-year-old Helen Perlant, recently revealed how she was brutally beaten up by a priest during a summer camp linked to the school but did not tell her father about the incident.

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Paris, France

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News world 'Supermarket For Sexual Predators': Victims Of Abuse At Elite French Boarding School Speak Out