At 71, this former supervisor at the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram school is still mayor of a Pyrenean village. Last February, he recognized physical violence on children of the religious institution.
A Hautes-Pyrénées village located a stone’s throw from Lourdes is enough to draw attention. And more particularly the mayor of this village of 303 souls. Angel Mur, 71, is a former supervisor ofNotre-Dame-de-Bétharram (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). On February 19, the man publicly declared that he had “heavy hand” on residents of the Catholic establishment. “When I struck, I was struck,” he assured the microphone of TMC. He is then dismissed from his deacon functions. On the other hand, he remains mayor of Jarret, this famous Pyrenean village.
An ubiquitous situation for Arnaud Gallais, the president of Mouv-childat the origin of a petition demanding the revocation of the councilor signed by 18,000 people. “How can we be responsible for citizens, elected, in charge of missions related to childhood … when we admitted publicly having beat kids?”, He wonders in the columns of the newspaper Le Parisien.
Indeed, the man admitted to having gave children when he was a supervisor between 1979 and 1981 in the Marian sanctuary located in Lestelle-Bétharram. “We are talking about defenestration, slaps, blows and himself has not hidden” “, he abounds with France 3 Occitanie. And he is not the only one to have scandalized in this case. This is also the case of the rebellious deputy of Hautes-Pyrénées Sylvie Ferrer, calling for the resignation of the mayor:” following his declarations, he can no longer remain the first magistrate of his commune. It is a question of protecting all the children of the Republic and not to let pass, “she insists
“The child had a broken nose”
In an attempt to alert opinion on the subject, a small event was organized on February 27 in front of the town hall of Jarret. Pruits on which the mayor was written “here, the mayor is a torturer” were brandished. The main interested party says “to have been very strongly touched” by the controversy and “never recovered from it, neither him nor his family”, in the Parisian. His assistant Raymond Carrère goes even further: “If it is only slaps, it goes. It would even be necessary to distribute more often,” he says.
A former student of Betharram tells for France 3 Occitania having attended several scenes of violence on his comrades, in particular the canteen scene: “A child wanted to make a joke. Angel Mur heard him. He took the head of the kid and burst him into the plate. The child had his nose broken. It was violence like that for a very long time”, concedes Pierre. Elected in 2001 as a first jarret council, Angel Mur still occupies the function in the service of the harmony.