French justice this Tuesday launched an appeal for witnesses to find possible new victims of a 79-year-old man, arrested and accused of raping and sexually assaulting 89 minors between 1967 and 2022 in several countries, reported Grenoble prosecutor Etienne Manteaux. The crimes attributed to him occurred in Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Philippines, India, Colombia, and New Caledonia, where he worked as an educator, the prosecutor explained at a press conference, as reported by Le Monde and RFI and noted by the Argentine News Agency. 'He traveled to these different countries, and in each of the places where he settled to give private lessons and teach, he met young people and had sexual relations with them,' the prosecutor said. The number of victims was determined from writings collected on a USB drive by the accused, which involved minors aged 13 to 17, the judicial official added. During the investigation, the suspect admitted to having suffocated his mother, who was terminally ill with cancer, with a pillow in the 1970s, and later his 92-year-old aunt in the 1990s. About his aunt, he said he killed her when he was planning to travel to southern France because the woman 'begged him not to leave.' He was charged and remanded in custody in February 2024 for aggravated rape and sexual assault against 89 minors over fifty-five years. Subsequently, he was placed under strict judicial supervision that he did not respect, so he is again in pretrial detention since April 2025, according to the prosecutor.
