Feb 10, 2026, 3:42 p.mFeb 10, 2026, 3:42 p.m
France’s justice system is investigating a 79-year-old man who is said to have sexually abused 89 minors over a period of almost 60 years. As a youth worker, the man is said to have abused boys between the ages of 13 and 17 during assignments in numerous countries, including Germany and Switzerland, as the public prosecutor’s office in the southeastern French city of Grenoble announced.
The man, who last lived in Morocco, was arrested in 2024 while visiting family in France after a nephew came across a USB stick with records and photos of the abused young people. Since investigators have so far only been able to identify around 40 of the victims listed there, other affected people were called upon to contact the authorities. The acts are said to have occurred between 1967 and 2022.
Suspect in action in Germany for years
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the youth worker worked in Germany between 1965 and 1969 and between 1985 and 1996. He worked in Switzerland between 1965 and 1980 and between 1985 and 1996.
The man wrote in notes on the confiscated USB stick that he exerted an intellectual attraction on the young people, which he used for his acts of abuse. Victims who had already been interviewed by investigators said that the carer spent a lot of time teaching them foreign languages and raising their cultural awareness, the public prosecutor’s office said. The supervisor described himself as a “pedophile” in the notes.
The fact that a decades-long series of abuse can be uncovered through detailed records of the perpetrator brings back memories in France of the case of the surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, who was convicted last year of abusing almost 300 mostly young patients. He kept meticulous records of the crimes between 1989 and 2014.
Secret recordings also exposed the Pelicot case
The sensational Gisèle Pelicot abuse case in France was also exposed because Pelicot’s ex-husband recorded his actions, as well as those of the other 50 convicted perpetrators, in detail on video. He had confessed in court that he had repeatedly drugged his then-wife for almost ten years, abused her and had her raped by strangers.
In addition to the decades-long series of abuse, the former youth worker who was taken into custody by investigators in Grenoble is also accused of two murders. As the public prosecutor announced, the man admitted to suffocating his mother with a pillow in 1974 when she was in the final stages of cancer. In 1992 he is said to have killed his 90-year-old aunt in the same way. (sda/dpa)