Mauritius tutor trusted by families faces Paris rape trial

The families who hired him described a gentle, patient teacher, a man welcomed into their homes on the island of Mauritius to help their children with schoolwork. From this Monday, 26 October, that same man will stand before the Cour criminelle de Paris, accused of rape and sexual violence against four minors who were his pupils.

According to one of the indictment orders, the private tutor is alleged to have used those tutoring sessions to abuse the children in his care, including forcing them to perform sexual acts. The details, laid out in court documents, have left many families in Mauritius deeply shaken.

The case first came to light in 2021, when a girl who was between 8 and 10 years old at the time of the alleged acts filed a complaint for rape. She told investigators that the teacher had made her watch pornographic videos and then forced her to perform fellations on him.

What followed, according to the indictment order, deepened the family’s ordeal. The man began a relationship with the girl’s mother. When the mother learned of the acts described by her daughter, she immediately ended the relationship and described the teacher as a “gourou”. He was placed under formal investigation in December 2022 following the accusations against him.

Meanwhile, as investigators looked further, other families came forward. It was established that the man had sexually assaulted other young girls. The father of two of the victims told the investigation how the teacher had worked his way into the daily life of the families, positioning himself close to the young girls to whom he gave lessons. For parents who had trusted him with their children, that closeness sits at the heart of what the trial will now examine.

The accused, for his part, has rejected the accusations. Appearing before the investigating judge, he claimed that one of the girls, a collégienne, had been “manipulated” by her father, and that the allegations were an act of pure vengeance on the father’s part. The investigating judge nonetheless directed that he face charges of rape concerning three other young girls, in acts alleged to have taken place between 2012 and 2017.

His trial before the Paris criminal court is scheduled to run until Thursday, 29 October. Beyond the rape charges, he will be judged for corruption of minors, two of whom were under 15 years old. The charges also cover suspected sexual assaults on a minor and the rape of his niece in 2017.

For the families involved, the proceedings mark the end of a wait that began years ago, with a complaint filed by a child too young at the time to have finished primary school. The story has resonated well beyond the households directly concerned, with many families in Mauritius following the case as it moves from the island to a courtroom in Paris. Further details of the hearings are available via the report carried by CNews at https://www.cnews.fr/france/2026-10-26/un-professeur-particulier-juge-paris-pour-violences-sexuelles-contre-des-eleves.

The trial will now weigh the accounts of the children and their parents against the denials of a man whom those same parents once welcomed into their homes as a teacher. Between this Monday and Thursday, the Cour criminelle de Paris will hear a case that began with the words of one young pupil and grew to encompass four alleged victims, a charge of corruption of minors, and accusations reaching back more than a decade. What the court makes of those competing accounts will determine not only the man’s fate, but how these families finally close a chapter that began with a child’s complaint.