French PM Bayrou shocked as daughter says she was abused at scandal-hit school

She told Paris Match that a senior priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram beat her in the summer camp in the 1980s in front of her peers when she was 14 years old but Perlant never told anything related to it to his father Bayrou.

The physical and sexual abuse scandal perpetrated over decades at Bétharram in the Pyrenees has shocked France as details emerged in recent weeks. French PM Bayrou was a local member of parliament (MP) and the education minister during that time.

Bayrou, 73, has declined the speculations that he knew about the abuse happening at the school as pupils suffered from the 1950s to 2010, reported BBC. A parliamentary enquiry into the stunning revelations has been initiated and PM Bayrou is due to appear before the committee next month.

Bayrou’s three children were studying in the scandal hit school and his wife used to teach catechism there.

Bayrou’s daughter Perlant, whose story of alleged abuse at the school is part of a book releasing this week, said “One night when we were unpacking our sleeping bags, [Father] Lartiguet suddenly grabbed me by the hair, dragged me across the floor for several metres, then punched and kicked me all over, especially in the stomach,” reported The Guardian.

Targeting the school, Perlant added “Bétharram was organised like a sect or a totalitarian regime putting psychological pressure on pupils and teachers so they stayed silent,” The Guardian reported quoting Paris Match.