Paris school aide goes on trial in child abuse scandal

A 36-year-old freelance journalist who took a school aide job to supplement his income went on trial in Paris on May 26 accused of sexually assaulting kindergarten pupils, in a case now seen as the first public reckoning from a wider abuse scandal in the city’s after-school care system.

David G. is accused of assaulting five children aged between three and five and of sexually harassing two colleagues. He has denied the allegations. The hearing has drawn unusual attention because it is not just about one defendant, but about how misconduct could spread inside a system meant to supervise some of the youngest children in the capital.

Paris investigators are already examining allegations involving non-teaching staff at 84 kindergartens and around 20 primary schools. Other reporting says probes have been launched at more than 110 institutions since the start of 2026, underscoring how quickly the scandal has widened beyond one school or one worker. The case has raised difficult questions for the City of Paris, which employs after-school care workers directly rather than through the schools where they are assigned.

That staffing model is now under scrutiny. Fewer than one in five of these workers holds a permanent post, and some are paid as little as €12 an hour, conditions that have intensified questions about screening, supervision and whether warning signs were missed or not passed up the chain. Parents’ groups have pressed for a stronger national response, saying the scandal has exposed failings in child protection that extend well beyond any single criminal case.

The trial comes as officials face pressure to explain how alleged abuse persisted across multiple sites before broader action was taken. With more than 70 school employees recently suspended or fired over allegations of sexual abuse and other misconduct, the Paris case has become a test of how the city, schools and prosecutors handled complaints, and of what parents were told while the inquiry deepened.