Will the Preynat trial be disrupted? Scheduled this Monday, the trial of Bernard Preynat, whose alleged sexual assaults on young scouts in the Lyon region triggered the Barbarin case, could be postponed with the lawyers' strike, several sources in Lyon said on Friday.
The members of the Council of the Order of Lyon had thus voted Friday in favor of the extension of their strike until Monday inclusive. Scheduled all week before the criminal court, the trial could be postponed for at least a day.
An “oversized” duration
According to trial lawyers contacted by AFP, it is very likely that several of them are asking for a postponement until the opening of the hearing on Monday.
"I think the debates will at least be neutralized on Monday. If the trial starts on Tuesday, that will not have much impact because the length of the trial seems to me oversized compared to the program, ”considers Me Yves Sauvayre, lawyer for one of the victims.
If the meeting scheduled Monday between the Keeper of the Seals Nicole Belloubet and the national bodies of lawyers is not considered conclusive and if the National Council of Bars requests it, the movement will be extended until January 19, added the Council of the 'Lyonnais Order.
Priest pedophile in Lyon: "I kept that for myself", confides a victim
A series of pedophile attacks
Bernard Preynat, who recognizes most of the facts, is prosecuted for pedophile attacks committed several decades ago, between 1971 and 1991. At the time, he officiated as vicar chaplain scout at Sainte-Foy-Les-Lyon in the Rhône .
Ten minor victims at the time of the events took legal action, in addition to a handful of associations. The plaintiffs, scouts aged 7 to 15 at the time, essentially criticized this ex-parish priest for touching, kissing on the mouth and forced reciprocal caresses, especially on sex.
Up to 10 years imprisonment incurred
Aged 74, the ex-priest reduced to the secular state at the end of his canonical trial last summer faces 10 years of imprisonment.
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The actions of the former parish priest had the ripple effect splashed Cardinal Barbarin, sentenced in March 2019 to six months suspended prison sentence for not having reported him to justice before his indictment in 2016. Now withdrawn from diocese, the primate of Gaul awaits the decision of the court of appeal on January 30.
