Hélène Perlant, Daughter of François Bayrou, Breaks Silence on Abuse Linked to Bétharram Congregation

In an interview with Paris Match, Hélène Perlant, daughter of French Prime Minister François Bayrou, revealed she was a victim of physical violence at the age of 14 during a summer camp run by the same religious congregation as the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, now at the center of a major abuse scandal.

Her chilling account adds to a growing number of accusations targeting the institution, long accused of physical and sexual abuse. Perlant described being violently assaulted by Father Lartiguet, a now-deceased priest: “He grabbed me by the hair, dragged me across the ground for several meters, and beat me with fists and kicks all over my body, especially in the stomach. He weighed about 120 kilos.” The incident, witnessed by others, was never reported. “To put it bluntly, I wet myself and spent the entire night like that, damp and curled up in my sleeping bag,” she recalls.

A Culture of Silence Within a Closed System

Perlant also shares her story in the upcoming book The Silence of Bétharram, co-written with Alain Esquerre, spokesperson for the victims’ collective. She describes the institution as “organized like a sect or a totalitarian regime,” exerting psychological pressure on students and teachers alike to remain silent. “I stayed silent for thirty years. I never mentioned it, to anyone.”

For decades, the abuse went unreported and unpunished. According to Perlant, the silence also stemmed from a politically charged family environment.

“Maybe I Wanted to Protect Him”

She never told her father what she had endured. At the time, François Bayrou was the mayor of Pau and a prominent political figure. “Maybe I wanted to protect him, unconsciously, from the political blows he was already taking locally,” she explains.

She says the Prime Minister only learned of her testimony recently, through the media. “He called me and said: ‘Is it true? What are you saying? Are you denouncing me?’ I replied: ‘You’ll see.’ He didn’t know anything.”

Now 53 years old, Hélène Perlant says she feels the need to help lift the veil of silence surrounding the decades of abuse committed within the congregation.

François Bayrou to Appear Before Parliamentary Commission

François Bayrou is currently facing a formal complaint for failing to report crimes and offenses. He is expected to testify under oath before a parliamentary commission on school violence, scheduled for May 14, which was established in the wake of the Bétharram revelations.