A French prosecutor on Tuesday, February 10, appealed for further testimony in a mass abuse case across nine countries, after charging a 79-year-old former educator with rape and sexual assault of 89 minors since the 1960s. Prosecutor Etienne Manteaux spoke to reporters in the city of Grenoble to publicize the case of the former teacher, who had also confessed to killing his terminally ill mother and his elderly aunt.
In an unusual move, French authorities named the suspect, Jacques Leveugle, who was born in 1946 in Annecy, an Alpine town an hour's drive away from Grenoble. "This name must be known because the aim is to enable potential victims to come forward," the prosecutor said. Leveugle, who is accused of committing sexual crimes against minors between 1967 and 2022, has been in custody since his indictment in 2024, the prosecutor said.
When asked why prosecutors did not reveal the information when Leveugle was placed under investigation, Manteaux said that it was a "somewhat unusual case, and we wanted to first ensure the veracity of the facts." Then "it became essential to allow victims who could not be identified and who were not going to be heard to come forward," he added.
'Travelled to different countries'
