A defrocked French Catholic priest has been sentenced to five years in jail for sexually abusing scouts in his care several decades ago, ending a case in which it was claimed his superiors shielded him from prosecution.
After survivors testified about the abuse during his trial in Lyon, Bernard Preynat, 75, confessed in January to “caresses” he knew were forbidden.
The accusers were aged seven to 14 when the crimes were committed between 1971 and 1991, while Preynat was a scout leader in Lyon.
The five-year term was less than the eight years sought by prosecutors, who accused Preynat of “shattering” his victims’ lives and profiting from the silence of their parents and the church hierarchy.
Survivors’ groups had long accused Preynat’s superior, Philippe Barbarin, of covering up the abuse, making him the most senior French priest to be caught up in the global clerical child sexual abuse scandal in recent years.
Barbarin, a staunch conservative who became the archbishop of Lyon in 2002, was originally given a six-month suspended sentence in March 2019 for not reporting Preynat’s crimes. However, in January, an appeal court overturned the conviction, saying that while Barbarin should have informed the authorities, he was not criminally liable for his lack of action.
Pope Francis accepted Barbarin’s resignation this month.
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/defrocked-french-priest-jailed-for-abusing-scouts-over-20-year-period
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