A teacher from the Jules-Vallès elementary school in Plaisir (Yvelines) was sentenced, Thursday, December 5, to one and a half years in prison for sexual touching of two young students. The Versailles criminal court also handed down an eighteen-month suspended prison sentence against this 36-year-old man, a definitive ban on carrying out any professional activity in contact with minors and an obligation of care. He was placed under arrest warrant following the hearing.
Having been practicing for ten years, the teacher was suspended from his duties since the report of one of the two victims. He was prosecuted for having caressed, between September 2023 and March 2024, the chest of the first victim, then aged 8, and having, on several occasions, touched the lower stomach of the second child, aged 7.
“I'm not the type to have sexual perversions. I recognize that I may have been too close to my job, but from there to having an attraction or a deviance, no”defended the professor at the bar, who appeared free under judicial supervision.
A “reframing” for similar facts
Very moved, the mother of the youngest of the two victims recounted on the stand how she became aware of the touching suffered by her daughter, saying she had doubts at first. “I asked her to promise because she knows that if she promises, she has no right to lie”described the mother. “That’s when I knew she hadn’t lied”she continued, in tears.
The court recalled that the teacher had already been warned in January by the academic inspectorate due to excessive proximity with his students. He was also received for a “reframing” for similar facts during the 2022-2023 school year in another establishment, the Versailles academy said in June.
Me Dimitri Debord, lawyer for the civil parties, noted in his pleading the professor's total lack of empathy towards the victims' families, as did the prosecutor, Claudie Faisant, regretting that the defendant does not take responsibility for his actions and does not show “no repentance”.
“You can’t blame someone for defending themselves.”replied Me Marc Mandicas, the professor's advice. “He was always well rated by his superiors, he never posed a problem”he added, stressing that children's statements should be taken with caution. Me Mandicas told Agence France-Presse that his client plans to appeal the court's decision.
