The file in the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram affair continues to grow. Forty new complaints should in fact be filed by next week, confirms 20 minutes Alain Esquerre, spokesperson for the victims, and creator of the Facebook group “Alumni of the Bétharram college and high school, victims of the institution” at the origin of the case.
This will therefore bring the number of complaints filed in this case to 73. Former students of this Catholic institution in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, located around thirty kilometers from Pau, have been denouncing physical or sexual violence since February “between the 1960s and 2000s” at Notre-Dame de Bétharram, a renowned establishment. since 2009 “Le Beau Rameau”. The opportunity to take stock of the investigation.
What are these new complaints based on?
“At least” forty new complaints should be filed by next Tuesday, announces Alain Esquerre. “Half relates to sexual touching, and the other half to physical violence. »
Among the acts of violence, some say they were, within the establishment, “put at the foot of the bed, arms crossed over their heads for hours, others left on the steps in the middle of winter in sub-zero temperatures. There was also a beating of 21 violent blows on a 14-year-old child, the strangulation of a 14-year-old child until he fainted, the use of an iron ruler on his fingertips until bleeding, deprivation of toilets…”, lists Alain Esquerre. “People who say it’s education the hard way, I say no, that’s torture. »
Should we expect additional complaints?
If the first 33 complaints filed against the Catholic institution, which brings together a private school and college, mainly concerned the years 1960 to 1980, “here, we are more on the period 1980-2000”, adds Alain Esquerre. “So this means that younger victims are arriving. »
With two consequences. The first is that more and more complaints may no longer fall within the statute of limitations. Secondly, “we realize that the establishment took a long time to “detoxify” itself from violence, with sexual assaults still high until the end of the 1990s,” remarks Alain Esquerre.
The most recent complaint, which concerns acts of violence, “dates back to 2009”, when the establishment decided to rename itself “Le Beau Rameau”, and “dismissed most of its supervisors”, points out the former pupil. “We will therefore have 73 complaints in total, it is exponential”, underlines Alain Esquerre, who is still collecting testimonies, and hopes to reach “around a hundred complaints by this summer”.
Where is the investigation?
The preliminary investigation opened on February 1 by the Pau public prosecutor’s office for violence, rape and aggravated sexual assault, and entrusted to the Pau gendarmerie, is continuing its course. “The hearings of the victims have begun,” explains Alain Esquerre. The first of them to have been heard on February 12, the 52-year-old man still living in the town of Lestelle-Bétharram said he spent “four hours in hearing” at the Lescar gendarmerie. He detailed the violence he himself suffered from 1980 to 1985, between the ages of 8 and 13.
Around half of the complaints are of a sexual nature and two concern non-prescribed facts. Six priests (five of whom have died) and two lay supervisors are targeted. “One child in three has been abused by two people,” continues Alain Esquerre, who has drawn up “a table of victims and aggressors”. On February 14, a supervisor from the establishment, who had worked at the boarding school since 1984, was suspended. Now in his sixties, this supervisor is the target of eight complaints, five of which relate to sexual assault and rape, and the other three to violence and beatings.
What was the reaction of religious authorities?
Contacted by 20 minutes, the current head of the establishment “Le Beau Rameau” replied to us: “I can only be full of compassion for these people and their experience 35 years ago, however our structure is currently in another dynamic with support and respect for the person at the heart of the project. »
In a press release, Monseigneur Marc Aillet, Bishop of Bayonne, indicated in February: “In our diocese as in the entire country, Catholics and public opinion are, rightly, terribly shocked by these revelations, as I am myself, always in solidarity with the victims that we must support in prayer. » Mgr Marc Aillet is expected to preside over a “solemn mass” at the Betharram sanctuary this Sunday.
Alain Esquerre, for his part, regrets reactions “which do not live up to one of the biggest scandals of this type in France”. “We are going to reach 73 complaints, what are we waiting for to take action? What about support for victims? »