• Philippe Ghanty was arrested on Reunion Island on Wednesday.

  • Professor, he admits having had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl.

  • This was his former student.

  • He will be tried in Saint-Denis de la Réunion on April 2.

At the start of the week, Céline* and Philippe Ghanty “cried a lot on the phone”.

The girl, now 15, and her former English teacher knew their relationship couldn't last.

Thursday, this 34-year-old man was arrested in Saint-Denis (Reunion) and referred to the prosecution for sexual abuse of a 15-year-old minor.

Company

A teacher in police custody in Reunion for having had a relationship with a 14-year-old student

Left free under judicial supervision pending his trial on April 2, and subject to a ban on seeing his former student again, Philippe Ghanty insisted on justifying himself in the columns of

20 Minutes

before having to see him again.

do in court.

"To restore some elements of truth," he says.

Starting with the origin of his relationship with Céline.

"Contrary to what has been said, I did not visit her while I was her teacher," he says.

She shared her feelings with me in July 2017. I teach middle school.

And she was going to high school.

I was no longer his teacher…”

#Reunion: The man, an English teacher, would have taken advantage of the teenager's state of weakness after the death of her grandfather to get closer to her.

He was suspended from National Education in August 2017.

— Vincent Vantighem (@vvantighem) February 1, 2018


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She brought him cookies every day

An axis of defense which did not prevent the rectorate of Saint-Denis from suspending him from his duties in August 2017. Because Philippe Ghanty recognizes it himself: "Céline is the only student I have not couldn't let go after class…” A student who, he says, “[him] brought cakes every day”, was “intellectually very precocious” and above all “very mature”…

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The malaise of French society in the face of liaisons between teachers and students

Returned to court for sexual abuse of a 15-year-old minor, this man who ran for the legislative elections in Reunion under the colors of the National Front nevertheless claims that their relationship “was not based on sex”.

He recognizes "caresses on the back" and "kissing" but voluntarily maintains the vagueness on the sexual relations he could have had with the young girl who celebrated her 15th birthday last November.

"We knew it could get out of hand..."

"It's a love story, of course.

But we wanted to take the time… ”However, the text messages he was able to exchange with her, and which 20 Minutes revealed on Thursday, clearly suggest the opposite.

In the thousands of messages now appearing in the procedure, Philippe Ghanty indicates that he "wants a baby".

Faced with the girl's reluctance, he advises her to take the pill.

"Yes, I wrote that," he admits.

It's because we knew it could go wrong.

We knew it could happen.

And we were looking for a solution… We were living a real love story.

»

Justice

Minimum age of non-consent: At what age can you say “no”?

“I am very angry with his father.

»

A love story that Cyril, Celine*'s father, did everything to stop.

It was he who filed a complaint against his daughter's former teacher.

And again he who confiscated the four or five cell phones she hid in her bra, so that she could continue to correspond with him.

“I myself have a daughter [from a previous union], still indicates Philippe Ghanty.

I can understand it.

But I'm very angry with him…” The teacher explains that Céline got closer to him because she was “suffocating” in a “very religious” family that forced her to go to mass every Sunday.

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“I am well aware that this is not normal, but we just wanted to wait for her majority to get married and start a family, concludes the teacher.

I tried to talk to his parents but they never wanted to.

“A point that is not debatable.

On the phone on Wednesday, Cyril, Celine's father admitted that the teacher had tried to see him several times.

“The police advised me against it, he blurted out then.

It was better indeed… I don't know how I would have reacted if I had had him in front of me.

»

They will meet, anyway, on April 2 in court.

The acts of alleged sexual abuse being aggravated by the age of Céline, Philippe Ghanty faces a sentence of seven years in prison.

*

The first name has been changed.

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