Daughter of French PM says she was beaten by school priest

The daughter of the French prime minister, Francois Bayrou, has said she was brutally beaten at a private Catholic school at the centre of a growing sexual abuse scandal that has shocked France.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Hélene Perlant, 53, told Paris Match that a senior priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram beat her in front of her peers during a summer camp in 1987. Sources close to Bayrou said Perlant did not tell him about the alleged incident until shortly before the interview was published.

The Bétharram scandal has been growing for several months and has shaken the prime minister's position. He faces questions over whether he knew about decades of alleged widespread violence and sexual abuse at the school and did not act.

Bayrou is a former education minister who has been a local politician in the area near the school for many years. He sent three of his children to the school, and his wife taught there, but he has denied any knowledge of abuse allegations.