Ex-French priest jailed for sexually abusing boy scouts

LYON • A defrocked Catholic priest was jailed for five years yesterday for sexually abusing boy scouts in his care several decades ago, in a case that roiled the French Church over claims that he was shielded from prosecution by his superiors.

Bernard Preynat, 75, had confessed at his trial in January in the south-eastern city of Lyon to "caresses" he knew were forbidden after his victims testified about the abuse they suffered at his hands.

The accusers were aged seven to 14 when the crimes were committed between 1971 and 1991, when Preynat was a scout leader in Lyon.

The five-year term was less than the eight years sought by prosecutors, who accused the former priest of "shattering" his victims' lives and profiting from the silence of parents and Church hierarchy.

Victims' groups had long accused Preynat's superior, Mr Philippe Barbarin, of covering up the abuse, making him the most senior French priest to be caught up in the global clerical paedophilia scandal in recent years.

Mr Barbarin, a staunch conservative who became archbishop of Lyon in 2002, was handed a six-month suspended sentence last March for not reporting crimes Preynat confessed to him in 2010.

But in January, an appeals court overturned the conviction, saying that while Mr Barbarin should have informed the authorities, he was not criminally liable for his lack of action. Pope Francis accepted Mr Barbarin's resignation earlier this month.

Preynat was allowed to continue working as a priest by the Lyon dioceses until 2015, when initial claims from a handful of alleged victims became a deluge of damning testimony. He claimed during his trial that he had not touched any children since 1991, and faulted the church for failing to help him get treatment.

"They should have helped me... They let me become a priest," Preynat told the court, referring to fruitless therapy in 1967 and 1968.

He also asked forgiveness from the nine victims who testified against him - a small fraction of the alleged 85 people he took advantage of during his career, though many cases were not heard because they exceeded the statutes of limitation.

Preynat, who also said he had tried to commit suicide, was defrocked by the Church last July.

The scandal cast a harsh spotlight on Mr Barbarin, who last year denied covering up "these horrible facts" and claimed that "I cannot see what I am guilty of". And this month, he said the last four years had been ones of "great, great suffering" for him, adding that "it is important that a page be turned".

It became the subject of an acclaimed film last year by director Francois Ozon titled Grace A Dieu (By The Grace Of God), who collaborated with some of the victims.

Separately, yesterday, a court in Saintes, south-west France, suspended the trial of a retired French surgeon accused of sexually assaulting and raping minors in what prosecutors believe could be the country's biggest paedophilia case.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 69, went on trial last week on charges of raping or assaulting four children, but prosecutors say he may have abused as many as 349 children over his 30-year career.

His trial has been pushed back to October after the French authorities closed all courthouses to all but "essential litigation" as part of measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE