Kamal Ghorui
French prosecutors on Tuesday announced that a 79-year-old former educator has been charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault involving 89 minors, with the alleged crimes spanning more than five decades and multiple countries.Speaking to reporters in the southeastern city of Grenoble, public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux said that the accused, Jacques Leveugle was formally charged in 2024 for offences allegedly committed between 1967 and 2022. In a rare step, the prosecutor publicly named the suspect and urged possible witnesses and other victims to come forward.Leveugle, born in 1946 in the Alpine town of Annecy, has been in custody since his indictment, Manteaux said.According to the prosecution, the alleged crimes took place in several countries where Leveugle worked over the years, including Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Philippines, India and Colombia, as well as in New Caledonia, a French overseas territory. During this period, he worked as a freelance teacher and instructor, news agency AFP reported. Manteaux said that Leveugle held a range of professional roles, including teaching French and working as an instructor in speleology, the study and exploration of caves.Investigators identified at least 89 alleged victims based on extensive written records compiled by the accused on a USB drive. The documents refer to what he described as “sexual relations” with minors aged between 13 and 17.The USB drive was reportedly discovered by Leveugle’s nephew, who had grown concerned about his uncle’s emotional and sexual life, the prosecutor said. The material, described as a collection of “15 volumes,” formed a key part of the investigation.During questioning, Leveugle also confessed to killing two family members decades earlier, according to the prosecution. He admitted to suffocating his mother, who was terminally ill with cancer, with a pillow in the 1970s.He also confessed to killing his 92-year-old aunt in the 1990s by suffocating her with a pillow while she was asleep, Manteaux said.The prosecutor added that in his personal writings, described as “memoirs,” Leveugle had stated that he had “killed two people.”Authorities said that the investigation is continuing and have appealed to anyone with information or who may have been a victim to contact investigators.
