Paris Court Convicts School Aide For Sex Abuse, Orders Ankle Tag

A Paris court on Tuesday sentenced a man to one year under house arrest with an ankle tag for sexually assaulting primary school children in his care.

The sentence is the heaviest imposed since multiple allegations of sexual or physical violence emerged in recent months against monitors the city employs to look after children at school outside the classroom.

Michael M., 38, admitted during his trial to have sexually assaulted the nine children aged five to 10 between September 2022 and January 2024, and apologised for “what had happened”.

The court handed him a five-year term, four of which were suspended, and banned him from working with children again.

It ordered him to serve the one-year term under house arrest with an ankle tag, rather than inside prison.

The investigation had shown that he had taken part in conversations on the sexual abuse of children in a forum online, the presiding judge said.

A Paris court in July found a 25-year-old guilty of sexually assaulting a kindergarten-age girl in his care, handing him an 18-month jail sentence and banning him from working with children. He denied any wrongdoing.

Since the start of the year, Paris has suspended 132 aides, including 52 suspected of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the capital’s mayor Emmanuel Gregoire and his predecessor Anne Hidalgo, who served in her post for 12 years up to this year, should be held responsible after parents filed several complaints alleging mismanagement.

Speaking to a fact-finding inquiry of the upper house Senate on the issue, Hidalgo described Tuesday the problems in the sector as a “collective failure” but stopped short of issuing any personal apology.

“If we are here before you today, it is because our institutions — Paris City Hall, local authorities, the national education system, the police, and the justice system — have failed to protect our children,” she said, insisting she had personally been “deeply involved” in combating the problems.

Gregoire — who says he was sexually abused during an after-school primary school swimming programme — has pledged to tackle such abuse since he took over in March, describing it as a “systemic problem”.

He is due to speak to the fact-finding inquiry on Wednesday.

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