A 30-year-old English instructor of Algerian nationality was taken into police custody Tuesday on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and violence against boys and girls ages 3 to 5 at a private Catholic nursery school in Paris, according to sources close to the investigation. More than 20 complaints have since been lodged in the case.
The man, identified as Yasser G., worked for the Cap English Institute and taught introductory English sessions at École Saint-Laurent in Paris’s 10th arrondissement. The Paris judicial police’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors opened an investigation in early July after parents of a 3-year-old girl filed a complaint, according to BFM TV.
Attorney Hugo Latrabe confirmed his client was in custody.
🇫🇷11 staff members are accused of sexual assaults and rapes at the Saint-Dominique nursery school, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France.
"Look at that school behind us, that’s the school where my 3-year-old daughter was raped by several after-school care staff members,"… pic.twitter.com/unvnP8SUjM
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 27, 2026The alleged acts occurred during 30-minute English-language classes for children. Since a 2019 education law, French kindergarten students may receive early language lessons. The instructor entered the school alone, taught small groups in a first-floor “yellow” room without the regular classroom teacher present, and left around 10:45 a.m.
The case comes amid a broader series of investigations into alleged abuse by staff at Paris-area nursery and after-school programs, which Remix News has previously reported on.
The first girl told her parents the teacher was “mean” and had touched her private parts. The family alerted school officials through the École Directe app on May 11. In an email to parents that was later obtained by reporters, management referred to “a filing of a complaint for alleged serious facts in the context of English interventions in kindergarten.” It said “all steps taken with the judicial authorities” had been initiated and that “the alleged person was instantly suspended from all activity as a precautionary measure.” A psychological support unit was also announced.
Parents say the school’s initial response was delayed and inadequate. Management described the first report as “mixed” and gathered children in small groups to ask whether the teacher had been mean to them, a step parents say should have been left to trained investigators. No report was made to the Paris prosecutor’s office at that time, and the instructor was not immediately suspended.
On May 22, the director emailed parents seeking to extend Cap English classes to Wednesdays. Children therefore had about three additional hours with the instructor between May 11 and the end of the school year. Parents of the first girl filed a formal complaint June 22 and notified the school the next day. Cap English then suspended the man and the school reported the matter to prosecutors.
The instructor was not arrested over the summer while investigators conducted child interviews under a lengthy protocol. He had obtained a new position at a management school for the start of the academic year, according to reports.
“We were told not to say anything, not to leak to the press to allow the investigation to move forward,” one mother whose child is not among the alleged victims said. “We are all in shock, we explained to our daughter what happened because the students also talk about it among themselves. Many parents are afraid that the school will struggle and eventually close if the cases are publicized, I believe that this also unfortunately explains the silence. The atmosphere is very tense at school, management communication has been catastrophic from the start. It has to come out.”
The same mother said “drastic measures have since been taken by the new management, no more recourse to external organizations like Cap English, and above all no more hiring of male caregivers for children.” The original director is on sick leave and has been replaced by an interim manager.
Other parents expressed similar anger. One father described “a lot of stress, anxiety… There is a lot of incomprehension.” He said “it’s dramatic that a person was able to act in an ‘industrial’ manner.”
A mother who attended a July meeting said the director repeatedly called the information “mixed,” adding that this “put the parents who were there in a state of irritation even though it’s very clear, a child doesn’t invent things like that.”
Cap English said in a statement published by Le Monde that “one of its former instructors at a private school in Paris has been implicated in serious acts that appear to fall under the penal code.” The company added: “He was immediately removed from all activity with students as a precautionary measure as soon as the school principal informed Cap English of the alleged facts.”
It said required background checks had been completed at the time of hiring “without any information coming to its attention that would have barred him from working with minors” and that it would cooperate fully with investigators.
School management declined to comment Tuesday. The Diocese of Paris, which oversees the Catholic school, did not respond to inquiries.
