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November 07, 2019Shock among the French faithful for the murder of a former parish priest, found dead suffocated with a crucifix in his throat. After the chilling crime, the bishop announced that the priest had been removed from his parish following accusations of pedophilia. The alleged offender, a 19-year-old named only with the name of Alexandre, was subjected to a forced hospitalization after he appeared "in a delirious state" at the time of his arrest and said nothing, Le Parisien reports, citing the prosecutor Florent Boura .

The body of abbot Roger Matassoli was found on Monday at his home in Agnetz, in the Oise department, north of Paris. The news had strongly affected the faithful of the Assomption de Notre Dame church in nearby Froissy, where the cleric had been for 42 years deputy parish priest until 2009.

But the shock, notes the Parisien, then grew in the face of increasingly disturbing news. The autopsy revealed that the priest was beaten and died asphyxiated. Concordant sources, which have not been confirmed or denied by the prosecutor's office of Beauvais which investigates the case, have reported that a crucifix was pushed down his throat.

Histoire incroyable qui mêle an ancien curé accused of agressions sexuelles sur mineurs et tué, des paroissiens qui he rendent hommage, a nombre de victimes encore inconnu, and a meurtrier qui souffre depuis peu de problèmes psychiatriques. - @le_Parisien https://t.co/ctg02IT4ty

- Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) 7 November 2019

Subsequently the bishop of the Oise, Jacques Benoit Gonnin, revealed that in 2009 he had banned the exercise of the priesthood in Matassoli after two civilian houses for pedophilia had been brought against him. The victims were two altar boys between 10 and 14 years old. The facts, which occurred in one case in 1962, and in the other between 1976 and 1980, were now prescribed from the criminal point of view. "Today I still think of the victims of Abbot Matassoli," the bishop added.

It is not clear whether the alleged murderer was aware of these events, of which the abbot's former parishioners were in the dark. The prosecutor Boura is waiting for the doctors to go ahead and interrogate Alexandre again, who "has never indicated that he was the victim of similar events" by the priest, a person close to his family. Family and friends of the young person will also be questioned. The boy had begun to experience mental disorders for a few weeks and a fortnight ago, in "an altered state", he attacked his father.