What did the PM know? France reels at 'absolute cruelty' of school abuse

A damning report accuses prime minster François Bayrou of failing to act over the depravity of Bétharram, where his wife taught and his children were pupils

- Kim Willsher in Paris

Not for the first time this year, France has been forced to confront the fallout of a heartbreaking abuse scandal, this time one in which hundreds of schoolchildren were subjected to "torture, monstrous acts and sadism".

A parliamentary commission examining the extent of sexual and physical abuse at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school has come just weeks after the country reeled from the conviction of paedophile surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec for a 25-year-long campaign of rape or abuse of more than 299 victims, most under 15.

This latest scandal has French prime minister François Bayrou, 74, battling for his political future and poses fundamental questions about government failings that allowed the abuse to continue for more than two decades. The commission's 330-page report that centred on the Bétharram school in southwest France and other private schools suggested last week that officials, including Bayrou, were informed of the "persistent violence" in the 1990s but did not act.

Bayrou, education minister between 1993 and 1997 at the time of the worst allegations of pupil abuse, sent several of his children to Bétharram. He was friends with its headmaster, Father Pierre Silviet-Carricart - who committed suicide after he was accused of the rape and sexual assault of a pupil - and his wife Elisabeth taught catechism at the school. Despite this, Bayrou has vehemently denied knowing of the abuse.