A Paris court on Tuesday sentenced a former after-school supervisor to five years in prison after he admitted sexually assaulting nine girls at a primary school.

The court suspended four years of the sentence. It ordered the remaining year to be served at home under electronic monitoring.

The 38-year-old man, identified as Michael M., admitted the assaults during his trial. The offences occurred between September 2022 and January 2024, according to court reporting. The children were aged between six and 10.

The court also barred him from working with children again.

The case adds to a growing scandal over sexual and physical violence in Paris’s municipal after-school programmes. More than 200 allegations are under investigation across the capital’s schools and nurseries.

Paris has suspended 132 after-school staff since the start of 2026. The city says 52 of those cases involve suspected sexual or sexist violence.

Investigation uncovered wider concerns

The investigation into Michael M. also examined his online activity.

The presiding judge said investigators found conversations about child sexual abuse on an online forum. The finding added to concerns about his conduct before his conviction.

The sentence follows another conviction in July involving a Paris after-school worker.

That 25-year-old man received an 18-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting a young girl in his care. The court also banned him from working with children.

Several other cases have produced different outcomes.

Two Paris after-school workers previously faced allegations involving children but were acquitted of sexual assault charges. Prosecutors appealed those decisions.

The contrasting verdicts have intensified debate over how authorities investigate allegations involving young children.

The latest conviction comes as Paris authorities face questions about whether they acted quickly enough to protect children.

Former Mayor Anne Hidalgo appeared before a French Senate inquiry on Tuesday. The inquiry is examining how authorities prevent and respond to violence in after-school care.

Hidalgo described the situation as a “collective failure” by public institutions. She said Paris City Hall, local authorities, the education system, police and the justice system had failed to protect children.

She stopped short of issuing a personal apology.

Parents’ groups criticised her response. SOS Périscolaire said Hidalgo continued to focus on institutional failures without accepting personal responsibility.

The Senate inquiry is also examining the city’s handling of complaints.

A 2015 report by the Paris General Inspectorate had warned about the risk of offences against minors by city employees. Senator Agnès Evren said the city later stopped systematically reporting complaints for four years. She also said authorities only partly implemented the report’s recommendations.

A wider safeguarding crisis

Current Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire is also facing scrutiny.

The Paris prosecutor has opened investigations into Grégoire and Hidalgo over alleged failures to assist people facing danger from abuse, according to Reuters. The investigations do not establish wrongdoing by either politician.

Families have also filed complaints against the city and senior officials. They want prosecutors to establish what officials knew about alleged abuse and when they knew it.

Grégoire has promised a €20 million action plan to tackle sexual violence in after-school programmes. He has called the problem systemic and made child protection a priority of his administration.

He is due to appear before the Senate inquiry on Wednesday.

The Senate lists his hearing for September 16, following Hidalgo’s appearance and that of former deputy mayor Patrick Bloche on Tuesday.

The scale of the investigations has placed Paris’s after-school system under intense scrutiny.

The allegations involve activities outside normal classroom teaching. They include lunch breaks, rest periods, clubs and other supervised programmes.

Parents’ groups say the issue extends beyond individual offenders. They argue that institutions failed to respond adequately to warnings and complaints.

Barka Zerouali, co-founder of #MeTooEcole, told Reuters that parents expect children to be safe once they enter public services.

The latest conviction therefore carries significance beyond the five-year sentence.

It shows that some cases can reach a criminal conviction. But the wider investigation now turns on a different question: whether Paris authorities built a system capable of detecting abuse and acting before more children were harmed.

The Senate inquiry is expected to issue recommendations later this year.