The Reims prosecutor announced on Monday the opening of an investigation for sexual assault on minors after the revelations of two former scouts denouncing abuses committed at the end of the 90s by the same priest chaplain.
"
The first investigations began on Monday,
" said the prosecutor, Matthieu Bourrette, at a press conference.
This investigation, carried out by the PJ, follows an email on October 21 - also addressed to the Archbishop of Reims and to the Union newspaper - from a former scout in his forties denouncing touching in 1999 by the part of a priest chaplain.
Read alsoSexual abuse in the Church: what is the national canonical criminal court?
"
He explained that his approach resulted in particular from the fact that he had learned that this priest was still active,
" said the prosecutor. The same day, the prosecution received the testimony of a second complainant in his forties, also by email, affirming "
that he had been the victim of the same priest on several occasions between 1996 and 1999
", according to the prosecutor. "
No details were given on the nature of the facts denounced
" he adds. "
I requested that the plaintiffs be heard as quickly as possible in order to be able to appreciate the exact nature of the facts, their frequency
", explains Matthieu Bourrette who evokes "
a complex case
" requiring "
the greatest caution
"."
These elements should allow me to qualify the facts as well as possible and to verify
"whether
or not
they"
should be prescribed or not
, "he adds.
“
Other victims are ready to be heard.
"
The prosecution also defended itself against accusations of inaction in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “
My prosecution and I were not informed of these facts for the first time until October 21, 2021.
», Replies Matthieu Bourrette.
Contacted by AFP, the Archbishop of Reims, Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort, however affirmed in a press release that in January 2000, "
the parents of a scout
" had entered into contact with Mgr Jordan, the archbishop of the period, which had telephoned "
the next day to the Attorney General near the Court of Appeal of Reims
".
Read alsoSexual abuse in the Church: after the shock of the Sauvé report, the faithful "think above all of the victims"
According to him, the Attorney General then recommended to prohibit the priest concerned from any ministry with young people. According to the archdiocese, precautionary measures had been taken in 1999 against this priest. He was also suspended "
from any public sacramental celebration
" and "
has no pastoral mission
" since 2019. "
I would not be surprised if there are other complainants
", confided the prosecutor of Reims. “
Other victims are ready to be heard.
This new investigation comes a few days after the publication of the Sauvé report on child crime in the Catholic Church, estimating at 216,000 the number of children and adolescents victims of clerics and religious since 1950.
