Three years in prison were required against the gym teacher tried this Tuesday, May 19 before the Montauban criminal court for sexual assault on a minor. For five years, from 2013 to 2018, this sports educator, much appreciated by all, is accused of having had inappropriate gestures on his students, little girls from 5 to 12 years old victims of touching during gym exercises, in Montesquieu and other towns in Tarn-et-Garonne. Eleven young girls have filed a complaint. 500 child pornography images were seized on the hard drive of this ex-sports educator, who after having denied, admitted to the hearing his pedophile inclination, even if he still minimizes the scope of his actions in progress.
Traumatized children
Faced with families and some young girls, gathered four years after the events in the courtroom of the Montauban court, Gilles L, 57, still speaks of these caresses supported on his students during gym exercises, such as simple “tickles”, of “professional gesture”, or even “paternal”.
These “reassuring” gestures were aimed “exclusively at young girls, never boys,” the president of the court pointed out to him.
Yet his students say those insistent caresses that linger on the stomach, chest, buttocks during gym exercises.
Among the victims, Maud. She is now 19 years old. Four years after the incident, she remains traumatized by the inappropriate actions of her trainer. “During displays, or when he had to take me to the top bar, instead of taking me at the thigh level, he took me at the groin level. Even though I didn’t need any help, he would come and help me touch my chest or butt. “
At the time, Maud tried to talk to the other gym sports educator about it, but we did not believe it. “She told me that it was normal, that it was professional gestures.” Four years later, Maud remains traumatized: “Today, I have a lot of trouble with the people around me, the human relationship is very complicated. _He violated my privacy, it’s very difficult_.”
Maud, who recently consulted a psychologist, hopes that her attacker will be “Found guilty, and that he take, if possible, imprisonment so that he can understand the harm he may have done us.”
“They did not believe me when I denounced the facts, I hope that today people understand that it is still serious and that we must talk about it, you have to be listened to. » adds the young woman who has a hard time listening to the justifications of her former teacher during the hearing.
We didn’t believe them
It took three years of fighting and the relentlessness of families for justice to finally recognize the seriousness of the facts, explains Maitre Alexandra Tempels Ruis, the lawyer for the families of the 11 young girls victims of their sports educator.
« It was necessary to hold the hand of justice step by step to come up with a case that presents the accused as the real sexual predator that he is, and not as the good guy, the gymnastics teacher well with everyone. No one wants to bother him. When we fiddle with children, after all, we did not rape them. We don’t want to believe either, because a lot of parents say to themselves, I too would have trusted this person, I don’t want to believe that I would have been wrong. “ Master Tempels-Ruis gives advice to all parents who are confronted with these facts: “Beware of everyone, and especially believe the children, stop believing that what they are going through is not serious. “
Gilou, the model teacher
Sylvie still sees her daughter having nightmares today. As early as 2018, while talking with other parents of this gym teacher, she realizes that he has been carrying out the same actions on other children for years. But Gilou, as this gym teacher is nicknamed, is appreciated by all.
Arrived from Dieppe, he moved to Tarn-et- et Garonne in 2013. Before taking the post of sports educator in Montesquieu, he had already worked in several clubs in the region of Moissac, in Castelsarrasin, in Laville-Dieu-du-Temple.
From 2013, these inappropriate gestures were denounced in Valence d’Agen, the town hall had terminated its contract. It was not until February 2018 in Montesquieu for an eight-year-old girl to confide in her parents that her teacher lavished hugs on her so that the courts began to take the case seriously. Before 2018, a first complaint had been closed without follow-up, “for lack of sufficient elements”.
The parents of child victims will themselves take matters into their own hands, alert the media, so that justice recognizes the extent of the victims of Gilles L.
Justice finally takes into account the seriousness of the facts
At the end of this symbolic trial of sexual violence in sport, Sylvie, the mother of one of the 11 young girls victims, says she is relieved that justice has finally heard them: “This required three-year prison sentence means that we were right to go all the way, for our children. The fact that we say he must be removed for life from the sports sector throughout France for all the children it was important to us. Our daughters have spoken the truth! We recognize the guilt of their attacker. We will now have to continue to support our daughters, for a long time, but we will be there, with them ”.
Sylvie saw during the hearing the “Profile of the perfect pedophile. It was my hand, it wasn’t me. These are things that are difficult to hear, but we expected it ”.
Placed before the facts, these hundreds of child pornography photos “of incredible violence and cruelty” denounces the prosecutor, Gilles L. understands from the tip of his lips that he has become aware of the seriousness of the facts, but that he still does not see any direct links with the gestures of proximity with his young students during the gym classes.
Even if he himself consulted a psychologist, while his judicial review did not require him to do so, did he really realize the gravity of the facts?
“You always talk about tickling, no, it’s about sexual abuse” the prosecutor points out to him, who is asking for a three-year prison sentence.
The judgment is reserved for July 6.
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