The grandfather of French toddler Emile is at the centre of the investigation – His dark past

Philip B. had previously been accused of rape and physical abuse of children

Little Emile’s grandfather has been targeted by experts after a female hiker found the skull and bones of the 2-year-old boy who had disappeared from the village of Vernay in south-eastern France.

Emile had disappeared from his grandparents’ home on July 8, 2023, and his remains were found just 90 metres from his relatives’ home.

“The discovery of Emile’s remains was made by a female hiker however , she did not have to take them to the nearest police station in the area,” as reported by Le Figaro.

“The authorities should have been alerted and they should have picked up the findings,” experts are quick to argue.

Since yesterday, dozens of police officers, drones, anthropologists and specially trained dogs have been involved in the major operation of the French authorities to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of the little boy .

According to the German newspaper Bild, the boy’s grandfather, Philippe B. who is a kinesiotherapist by profession, was chopping wood outside his house around the time the child allegedly disappeared.

Why the authorities’ investigation is focusing on Emile’s grandfather

In the 1990s, Philippe, then 26, was a leader in a Christian community for children with family problems in the mountain village of St Croix, in the Pas de Calais in northern France, and had been accused of physical abuse.

In 2018, a court in the city of Lille summoned the unfortunate Emile’s grandfather to testify about the allegations against him. He had admitted at the time that he had “sometimes slapped the children, but it was not often enough”.

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And this was not the only time the little boy’s grandfather was in the eye of the authorities as Philip B. was suspected of raping minors in 1993, when he was a leader in the deeply religious Catholic scout club ‘Riaumont’, where physical violence against children was part of the daily training.

Shortly before the end of 2016, the witness Jean L. decided to report to the police incidents from 1993 at the “Riaumont” scout club. According to the French TV station “TF1”, the witness reported rape and abuse by two perpetrators: the “Brother Philippe” – that is, Emile’s grandfather – and another man who used a room “for punishment and torture”.