PARIS — A Paris criminal court on Tuesday sentenced a 38-year-old afterschool monitor to five years in prison, with one year to be served under electronic monitoring, for sexually assaulting nine children, delivering the first firm sentence since a sprawling abuse scandal engulfed the French capital’s extracurricular programs.
The man, identified only as Michaël M., was convicted of assaulting pupils aged five to 10 at the Vigée-Lebrun school in the city’s 15th arrondissement between September 2022 and January 2024. At a hearing on Aug. 31, he admitted to the acts while claiming he did not remember them.
“If the children say so, then it must have happened,” he told the court.
Court Cites Children’s Testimony and Online Activity
In reaching its verdict — the second conviction in the Paris afterschool scandal — the tribunal relied on what it described as the “precise and detailed statements of the children,” testimony from colleagues who “described inappropriate behavior on his part,” and the monitor’s own admissions.
Presiding judge Thierry Donard said the defendant’s claim that he was unaware of any sexual attraction toward children was undermined by investigators, who uncovered his exchanges on a pedophile discussion forum.
The court ordered the immediate enforcement of house arrest and a 10-year socio-judicial supervision order, even if the convicted man appeals. He was also permanently barred from working with minors and from public-sector employment.
A Pattern of Abuse
The case began with a complaint filed on Jan. 12, 2024, by a mother whose six-year-old daughter said the monitor had “touched her buttocks” twice. The investigation identified other potential victims, with girls describing repeated touching of their buttocks or genitals in the schoolyard and during a class outing.
During his trial, the defendant, wearing a surgical mask, said in a flat voice: “I am sorry for everything I have done. I ask forgiveness from all the victims and their families. I deeply regret everything that happened.”
Defense Welcomes Ruling as Scrutiny Intensifies
His lawyer, Anaïs Casseleux, told AFP the court had taken into account “my client’s personality, his family situation and his commitment to treatment.”
“It judged a man in his individuality, without seeking to make an example of him,” she said.
The conviction came as former Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo testified before the Senate’s Culture and Education Committee on violence in afterschool programs. Over nearly two hours, the former Socialist mayor defended measures taken during her tenure on early childhood while acknowledging a “collective failure.”
“Despite the actions taken and a real awareness of the sexual abuse suffered by children in our country, our institutions have failed,” she told senators, without ever accepting personal responsibility for the shortcomings.
The scandal has already produced a mixed record in court. On July 10, an afterschool monitor in the 10th arrondissement received the first conviction in the affair — an 18-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting one child. Two other monitors tried in the weeks prior were acquitted, angering families.
Investigations targeting Hidalgo and her former deputy Emmanuel Grégoire have since been launched, and 17 families have filed a complaint against the two officials.
