The second trial in a widening scandal over sexual abuse in Paris’s after-school care sector begins on Tuesday, with 35-year-old youth worker David G. appearing before the Paris Magistrates’ Court. He is charged with sexual assault of five children aged between three and five, as well as sexual harassment of two female colleagues. The case marks the first public trial since revelations emerged roughly a year ago, following an earlier closed-door proceeding in May.
David G., who worked as a freelance journalist and supplemented his income as an after-school activity leader at the Alphonse-Baudin kindergarten in the 11th arrondissement, faces a direct summons from four additional families accusing him of assaulting their children. This legal procedure bypasses the public prosecutor’s office, allowing victims’ families to bring the case directly to court. The alleged incidents occurred between September 2024 and April 2025. Upon being alerted, the City of Paris immediately suspended him, and he has not been reinstated.
Placed in police custody on 24 June, David G. continues to deny all charges. “As far as I’m concerned, nothing happened,” he told the press last November. “There was no intimate contact with the children. I had a relationship as a leader, that’s all, that’s the end of it.” The investigation began when parents of two girls noticed behavioral changes in their children. Subsequent interviews with several children revealed that David G. had touched their private parts, with some using the term “wee-wee.”
Two colleagues who have accused him of sexual harassment stated in November that they had observed nothing overtly suspicious, though they noted he “carried the little ones in his arms too often” and “sometimes stayed too long in the toilet with them when they needed to relieve themselves.” David G. has acknowledged breaking certain staff charter rules, such as not placing a child on his lap or carrying them. He now faces up to 10 years in prison and a €150,000 fine.
Growing Scandal and Institutional Response
The trial is part of a broader crisis that has engulfed Paris’s after-school care system. Since the initial revelations, the Paris public prosecutor’s office has investigated 84 nursery schools, around 20 elementary schools, and 10 crèches, according to prosecutor Laure Beccuau. In early April, then-first deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced that the city had suspended 78 staff members, including 31 on suspicion of sexual violence. Grégoire, who ran for mayor of Paris in January, made child protection a central campaign issue, denouncing “serious failings” and “poorly applied procedures.”
The city has since adopted a €20 million plan, approved on 14 April, which includes the creation of a “unit for listening to and reporting educational violence” and a Children’s Centre to support victims. “We must do everything we can to protect our children. Violence against them is unacceptable,” Grégoire stated at the time.
The scandal has also sparked activism. The collective Me Too Ecole, founded in the wake of the Alphonse-Baudin affair, has called for a silent demonstration outside the Paris Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. “Not to make noise. Not to take the place of the courts. We will be there in support. For the children. For the families involved. For those who have found the courage to speak out,” the group wrote on social media. The collective is pushing for concrete measures, including compulsory training for all adults in contact with children, the appointment of a child protection officer in every school, and the creation of an independent observatory to monitor reports and investigations of violence in schools across France.
Three more trials for sexual violence related to after-school activities are scheduled in Paris before early September. The case has drawn comparisons to other European child protection scandals, such as the Portuguese court case involving a French couple accused of child abandonment, highlighting systemic failures across the continent.
As the trial unfolds, the focus remains on the victims and the need for systemic reform. “No child should be afraid to go to school,” the Me Too Ecole collective declared. The outcome of this case, and the broader investigations, will be closely watched as a test of France’s commitment to protecting its youngest citizens.
