French police have launched an extraordinary international appeal for victims and witnesses in a sprawling case involving a 79-year-old former teacher accused of raping and sexually assaulting 89 children across five continents over more than five decades. Jacques Leveugle, currently in pretrial detention in France since April 2025, stands accused of crimes that investigators describe as a "textbook example" of serial sexual offending spanning from the 1960s until 2022.
Global Footprint of Alleged Crimes
The Grenoble prosecutor, Étienne Manteaux, revealed that Leveugle had worked with children in numerous countries including Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Philippines, India, Colombia, and the French overseas territory of New Caledonia. Despite never obtaining official teaching qualifications, Leveugle worked consistently as an educator, tutor, sports monitor in canyoning and speleology, and in youth camps throughout this period.
"He travelled in these different countries and in every place where he settled to work as a tutor, or teacher, he met young people," Manteaux stated. The prosecutor described Leveugle as appearing "cultured and charismatic" while allegedly grooming children for abuse.
Digital Evidence and Investigation Timeline
The case against Leveugle centers on his own extensive writings about his activities with children, which investigators discovered in a digital "memoir" comprising 15 volumes of text found on a USB drive. A nephew reportedly turned this evidence over to authorities, enabling investigators to identify 89 alleged victims—all boys aged 13 to 17 at the time of the alleged assaults occurring between 1967 and 2022.
Leveugle was placed under formal investigation in France in February 2024 for aggravated rape and sexual assault of minors. French gendarmerie have issued an online appeal featuring photographs of Leveugle at different ages and detailing the countries where he lived and worked.
Additional Homicide Allegations
In a disturbing development, prosecutors revealed that Leveugle has also confessed to police about killing two elderly relatives. According to Manteaux, Leveugle admitted suffocating his terminally ill mother with a pillow in the 1970s and later using the same method to kill his 92-year-old aunt in the 1990s.
"He decided to kill her too, so while she was asleep, he took a pillow and suffocated her," the prosecutor recounted regarding the aunt's death. Leveugle reportedly justified these actions by expressing a desire for someone to do the same for him if he found himself in similar end-of-life circumstances.
Urgent Appeal for Victims
French authorities are now urgently seeking additional victims or witnesses in all countries where Leveugle worked. "If victims want to come forward, they should do that now because we need to close this investigation in 2026 in order to hold a trial in a reasonable time frame," Manteaux emphasized.
The investigation reveals striking parallels to another recent French child abuse case involving former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, who was sentenced to 20 years for sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly children under 15. Like Leveugle, Le Scouarnec maintained detailed records of his crimes on his computer, highlighting systemic failures that allowed prolonged offending without detection.
Patterns of Offending and Professional Roles
Investigators have documented Leveugle's extensive professional engagements with children across multiple continents:
- Work with young offenders in Germany
- Numerous tutoring positions across Europe, Africa, and Asia
- Educator role in a children's home in Bogotá, Colombia
- Sports monitoring positions involving outdoor activities
- Regular employment in youth camps and educational settings
Born in the Alpine town of Annecy, Leveugle allegedly used his professional roles and charismatic personality to gain access to vulnerable young people across cultural and geographical boundaries. The case represents one of the most geographically extensive child abuse investigations in French history, with authorities now racing against time to identify all potential victims before the 2026 investigation deadline.
