“Non-normative”, authoritarian, self-centered sexual needs: the dark portrait of the Gard teacher tried for child rape

Me Marc Roux et Me Fabrice Giletta, en défense de François Bossy. MIDI LIBRE – François Barrère

François Bossy, 65, appears free before the Gard Assize Court, where he must answer to accusations brought by six students who described rapes they allegedly suffered when they were in his class, at the Caveirac nursery school, near Nîmes, in 2016.

Possessive, jealous, manipulative, authoritarian and directive, self-centered, devoid of empathy… This is a dark portrait of the accused, which is emerging at the Gard criminal court where François Bossy, 65, a former school teacher, is appearing, who denies having raped six children in his nursery class in Caveirac near Nîmes, in the fall of 2016.

The teacher disputes the facts

"All these things are impossible. Materially, one would have to go to the school to notice it" assures at the bar this plump man in a blue jacket, who appears free, after having spent two years behind bars, from September 2017 to January 2020, and who faces twenty years in prison.

A man whose former companions denounce "unusual needs in matters of sexuality",  who considered them "as objects" and demanded "total submission". Regarding her professional practice, the personality investigator is not more tender: "chronic absences, unsuitable pedagogy, suspicious behavior, negligent appearance, placing his students in insecurity", and standing with his colleagues "inappropriate comments and sexist remarks".

Son of a professor at the medical faculties of Montpellier and Nîmes

A heavy burden for a man who seemed to have all the assets in his pocket to succeed. A privileged social environment, with a grandfather who was a surgeon, a father who was a professor of medicine at the faculty of Montpellier and Nîmes, who was one of the great cantors in the 1980s,  of reflexotherapy and the recognition of acupuncture in France. Eight children, several of whom are doctors today, a mother at home, but a serious problem with intra-family communication, given the laconic testimonies of two of her brothers and one of her sisters, of whom we wonder what is hidden behind the unsaid.

"Nwe are a family of quiet people, not expansive people& ;quot; explains Michel, a tutor at the University of Montpellier. "I don't have any particular hatred towards him."

"De affection ?& quot; asks the president, Corinne Rieu.

" I don't answer."

A teacher without a vocation

For François Bossy, teaching has never been a passion. "After four years of science faculty in Montpellier, I had difficulty living, I had no money, I I joined teaching. It wasn't a vocation, but it was an honorable exit he explains.

"I found myself in this profession that I had not chosen, but once there I&rsquo ;I preferred to take care of the younger ones."

Around ten schools in twenty years

In twenty years of career, he has worked in more than ten schools in Gard, before arriving in Caveirac at the start of the 2016 school year. Why this movement ? Relationship problems with his colleagues, classes that didn't suit him, he said.

"He told me that an Atsem (specialized territorial agent for nursery schools, editor's note) l' had suspected touching a child during naptime, and as a result he had an inspection. Fortunately he had a friend who was very knowledgeable in the inspection, who helped him to settle the matter amicably and to change jobs. school"says Olga, a researcher at the CNRS, who had a child with him, and who had him convicted in 2004 for domestic violence suffered while she was pregnant with their son. François Bossy received a four-month suspended prison sentence and 18 months of probation by the Montpellier Criminal Court. 

"He shouted a lot, he growled a lot"

"He was very violent in his words, he shouted a lot, he scolded a lot" says Christelle, Atsem in Caveirac, who will report this teacher to the mayor and the school director. &quot ;The outfit, I've never seen that in a school, the fly open, the sweater open, he sat on the bench and we told him saw the line of the buttocks."

When questioned, Gérard Trauchessec, the mayor of Caveirac, confirmed this to the gendarmes. "In my opinion, he had nothing to do in the profession and he was aware of it. He did not know how to work in a team, he was absolutely not involved in school life. He forgot everything, his school keys or what someone had said to him the day before. He looked like he was drunk but he didn't smell of alcohol.

An instruction not to leave him alone

Aware of this risk of violence against children, the Atsems were instructed never to leave him alone with the children. "On was never gone for more than two minutes and we tiptoed home, but I never caught anything suspicious" admits Sylvie, who worked in her class for two years in Calvisson. This Thursday, January 31, the filmed hearings of the six children who denounced digital penetration and fellatio imposed in classes will be broadcast to the jurors.

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