French authorities launched an appeal for witnesses on Tuesday after the indictment of a 79-year-old former educator, jailed in 2024 and suspected of aggravated rape and sexual assault committed in France and about ten other countries against 89 minors between 1967 and 2022.

The events, investigated by the Grenoble prosecutor's office (east-central France), were allegedly committed in Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Philippines, India, Colombia and New Caledonia, detailed prosecutor Etienne Manteaux, who wants to "allow any other potential victims to come forward".

The number of victims was established from writings compiled on a USB key by the septuagenarian who mentions "sexual relations" with minors aged 13 to 17, prosecutor Etienne Manteaux said during a press briefing.

The USB key on which written documents were recorded by the septuagenarian was discovered by his nephew who "was wondering about the emotional and sexual life" of his uncle, added Mr. Manteaux.

The man also confessed during the investigation to the murders of his mother and aunt.

In his "memoirs", he wrote "that he voluntarily caused the death of two people", the prosecutor indicated.

He admitted to smothering his terminally ill cancer mother with a pillow in the 1970s, and then his 92-year-old aunt in the 1990s, also smothering her with a pillow, the prosecutor said.

Regarding his aunt, "because he had to go back to the Cévennes (southern France, editor's note) and she begged him not to leave, he made the choice to kill her as well and so, taking advantage of her sleep, took a pillow and suffocated her," the prosecutor said.

A separate investigation from the one on rapes and sexual assaults has been opened for these two facts "also fully recognized and admitted" by the accused who "legitimizes his actions by considering that he would like the same thing to be done to him if he found himself in this end-of-life situation", the same source indicated.