French police have launched an unprecedented international appeal for victims and witnesses in a sprawling child sexual abuse case involving a 79-year-old former teacher accused of raping and assaulting 89 children across five continents over more than five decades.
International Search for Victims
Authorities in Grenoble have made a rare global plea for potential victims and witnesses to come forward in the case against Jacques Leveugle, who has been in pretrial detention in France since April 2025. The case represents one of the most geographically extensive child abuse investigations in French history, spanning multiple countries from Europe to Asia and South America.
Decades of Alleged Abuse
Prosecutors allege that Leveugle's crimes began in the 1960s and continued until 2022, with the accused working with children in numerous countries despite never obtaining official teaching qualifications. The Grenoble prosecutor, Étienne Manteaux, described Leveugle as a "textbook example" of a serial sexual offender whose alleged activities spanned Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Philippines, India, Colombia and the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.
"He travelled in these different countries and in every place where he settled to work as a tutor, or teacher, he met young people," Manteaux stated during the appeal. Investigators say Leveugle appeared "cultured and charismatic" and used these qualities to groom children for abuse.
Digital Evidence Reveals Scale
The case centres on extensive digital evidence discovered by investigators, including what prosecutors describe as a 15-volume digital "memoir" found on a USB drive. These writings, compiled by Leveugle himself, allegedly document his activities with children and have enabled investigators to identify 89 alleged victims, all boys aged between 13 and 17 at the time of the alleged assaults.
French gendarmerie have issued an online appeal showing photographs of Leveugle at different ages and detailing the countries where he lived and worked. The former teacher held various positions working with young people, including as a sports monitor in canyoning and speleology, in youth camps, with young offenders in Germany, and as an educator in a children's home in Bogotá, Colombia.
Murder Confessions Emerge
In a disturbing development, prosecutors revealed that Leveugle has also confessed to police about killing two elderly relatives. According to Manteaux, the suspect admitted suffocating his terminally ill mother with a pillow in the 1970s and later killing his 92-year-old aunt in the same manner during the 1990s.
"He decided to kill her too, so while she was asleep, he took a pillow and suffocated her," the prosecutor stated, adding that Leveugle had written about having "killed two people" in his digital memoirs. The suspect reportedly justified these actions by saying he would want someone to do the same for him if he found himself in a similar end-of-life situation.
Parallels with Previous Case
The case bears striking similarities to last year's trial of former French surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, who was sentenced to 20 years for sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly children under 15. Like Leveugle, Le Scouarnec kept detailed records of his crimes on his computer, with victims and child rights advocates arguing that both cases highlight systemic failures that allowed serial offenders to operate undetected for decades.
Urgent Appeal for Information
French authorities are now racing against time to complete their investigation, with prosecutors stating they need to close the case by 2026 to ensure a trial can be held within a reasonable timeframe. "If victims want to come forward, they should do that now because we need to close this investigation in 2026," Manteaux emphasised during the appeal.
Leveugle was placed under formal investigation in France in February 2024 for aggravated rape and sexual assault of minors and has remained in custody since his arrest last April. The international nature of the case presents significant challenges for investigators, who must coordinate with authorities across multiple jurisdictions to gather evidence and identify additional potential victims.
The French appeal represents an unusual step in international law enforcement cooperation for child abuse cases, highlighting both the scale of the alleged crimes and the difficulties in investigating offences that span multiple countries and decades. Authorities hope that increased public awareness through their international appeal will encourage victims who may have remained silent for years to come forward with crucial information.
