- Former priest Bernard Preynat, reduced to the secular state, must be tried from Monday before the tribunal de grande instance de Lyon.
- He is prosecuted for sexual assaults on minors for acts committed 30 years ago.
- If nearly a hundred victims have been identified, nine for whom the facts are not prescribed, will be present Monday.
His breath smelling of cigar odor is still on their minds. His gestures moved too, as well as the fear he inspired in them. This Monday, the former priest Bernard Preynat, aged 74, (now reduced to the secular state) will find himself facing nine of his former alleged victims before the Lyon Tribunal de Grande Instance. If the trial is not postponed due to the lawyers' strike (see box), the man should be tried there all week for sexual assaults on minors. Thirty years after the acts of which he is accused.
The potential victims identified are all former scouts whom the priest supervised when he officiated at Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon in the late 1980s and early 1990s. If nine appear at the bar this Monday, dozens of others (a hundred victims are mentioned) will never get a trial since the alleged facts are now covered by prescription.
" Turn the page "
"I am waiting for the truth to be told to turn the page," said Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, one of these alleged victims, at the dawn of the trial. "We have a civic duty to inform people about what happened," he adds. He says he is "serene" about the coming confrontation. “I have no more apprehension. I have come a long way in the past four years. ” Since that day when he found himself for the first time facing Preynat in the police station, the young man undertook to release his word, to testify tirelessly to raise awareness. Sometimes at the cost of suffering.
Others, however, have a long way to go. “My client is still all in his pain. He is eager to understand. He is not only waiting to be recognized as a victim. He would like to understand how Father Preynat could have done this, could have attacked so many children with impunity. He is looking for answers to succeed in exorcising his demons, ”says Martine Bouchet, lawyer for Jean-François, 41 years old. A man she describes as "broken", "damaged by this affair". A "lively skinned".
"He hopes to heal his wounds. He started therapy, he managed to stop cannabis but he is still very inhibited. He's having a hard time moving forward, ”she says. According to his testimony, in 1986, the little boy, 8 years old, became one of the prey of Father Preynat, who imposed masturbation sessions on him and forced him to kiss him on the mouth. A ordeal that will last 4 years. The child drops out of school. He redoubled his CE2 then went on a chaotic course before being out of school.
"Sexual assault is not" not serious ""
"His salvation is due to his wife, whom he met when he was 14 years old. She never left him. Without her, he would not be there, ”continues the lawyer. In 2006, the man complained and revealed his terrible secret to those around him for the first time. "His mother did not believe him, she tried to minimize the facts. It was terrible for him. This created tensions and further distanced him from his family, "says Martine Bouchet, adding that her client is entering the trial" without hatred or thirst for revenge ". Like Matthew, portrayed as "a very balanced boy", by his lawyer Jean Boudot.
"He's not the one who is doing the worst," he observes. Some came out smashed. But we know that a kiss on the lips can be as traumatic as so-called superficial caresses or hands in the pants. The victims are in the same state as if they had been raped. Assaulting a minor is not "not serious". It generates frightening things in the construction of an individual ”.
Jean-François, 39, had a hard time breaking the omerta. He chose to "preserve his mother", now deceased, who "idolized" the priest. He never told her about the assaults. "He sacrificed himself. Today, his romantic relationships remain complicated, he finds it difficult to build something and he remains in permanent questioning, "continues Jean Boudot for whom the trial will generate" a real reflection on the meaning of punishment ".
Bernard Preynat admitted the facts
“We know that the Bernard Preynat applies for one of the highest steps of the podium in terms of number of victims except that the court is seized of ten offenses. This raises the question: should we free ourselves from the submerged part of the iceberg when making a decision ?, he asked. In addition, this man is going to be judged for facts which took place 30 years ago. And he seems to have changed his behavior since then. Can this save him from incarceration? To what extent can this have an impact on the acts committed ”?
"This is a case made complex by the time that has passed," answers Frédéric Doyez, Father Preynat's lawyer. The challenge will be to pronounce the right sentence. Guilt is not an issue: he is guilty of the facts. He recognized them. The question is what sentence to inflict on him. And would it be the same if the facts were committed today? "
Bernard Preynat faces 10 years in prison. In December 2018, the Saint-Etienne court sentenced Father Régis Peyrard to six months in prison for the same facts. “A suspended sentence would not be audible. More than 90 people came forward in this case. Men have committed suicide since. A suspended sentence would be tantamount to saying that there has been no justice, ”concludes Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill.
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The trial postponed?
Uncertainty hovers. The trial of Bernard Preynat could be postponed due to the lawyers' strike. The Lyon bar voted on Friday for a “total strike” until January 19 to protest against the pension reform. The appeal could result in the postponement of the first day of the hearing to Tuesday or the postponement of the trial to a later date. The civil parties and Bernard Preynat will be fixed this Monday morning.
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- Bernard Preynat
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- pedophilia
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