The spokesperson for the collective of victims of physical and sexual violence at the Betharram Catholic School (southwest France), Alain Esquerre, calls on the congregation that ran the private institution to "break their silence" following a meeting with the public prosecutor of Pau. Several decades after the events, which took place from the 1950s to the 2000s, the Pau public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in February 2024 following the filing of around 20 complaints by former students of the Catholic school. To date, 152 complaints of rape and physical or sexual violence have been lodged, including 40 new ones presented on Thursday, February 27, according to Esquerre. SOUNDBITE