- Bernard Preynat, former priest of the diocese of Lyon, is tried all week before the criminal court of Lyon for sexual assaults on minors.
- On the first day of his trial, he repented but reversed some of his statements.
From our special correspondent
“I have never been sexually attracted to women, nor to adult men. Only by little boys ”. At the helm of the Lyon Criminal Court, Bernard Preynat, 74, a former priest of the diocese of Lyon, who is today prosecuted for sexual assault on minors, confesses: pedophile ”. However, he admitted it to the judges on Tuesday during the first day of his trial which will be held until the end of the week.
Vaulted shoulders, fragile gait, the man with the thick white beard and the posed but slightly broken voice would almost forget that he is considered today as one of the biggest sexual predators in France. An image that contrasts with that of the “conductor” often described by his alleged victims. How many have been abused by "Father Bernard"? The accused's chilling confessions made him dizzy.
"It's almost a child a day ... for 20 years"
“From 1970 to 1991, it happened almost every weekend. One or two children at a time? It depended. During the camps, it could be 4 or 5 children per week, ”he reveals. What trigger the amazement of the court. "It's almost a child a day ... for 20 years," bounces Anne-Sophie Martinet, president of the criminal court.
Ten, for whom the facts are not prescribed, are therefore entitled to a trial. Among them Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, abused for the first time at the age of 10 in 1989. Scout at the Saint-Luc parish of Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, altar boy and pupil of the Favorite college in which Bernard Preynat was chaplain, the boy "accumulated" the opportunities to be alone, locked in a dark room with the priest. "Whenever I was designated as an altar boy, I went there," he said with dignity. “Over time, it went further. These gestures were increasingly supported, he recalls. He stroked my cock with a circular movement of the hand. ” In total, "fifty times" in almost three years, evokes the young man. What the former priest energetically contests.
Nuanced confessions
"Not as much. About fifteen times, perhaps. But I would say a dozen, ”he replies, triggering the annoyance of the parquet floor. "Mr. Preynat, there is already a difference between 10 and 15. I remind you that you risk ten years in prison for one time", tance Dominique Sauve, vice-prosecutor launching himself throughout the day in a real arm of iron with the defendant. The former parish priest asks for forgiveness but gradually returns to the facts that he recognized in police custody. The kisses imposed on the mouth? "No, it was not my method. I did not put the tongue, "he insists several times, reporting" kisses on the eyes or eyebrows. Hands passed through underpants? "Only" on the body or the thighs, he answers some victims. Masturbation requests? "Not for him".
The court then returns to its operating mode: a “futile” pretext to ask the little boys to accompany it in its tent, during camps, or in a separate room, an office, a storage room. There are also the caresses imposed in plain sight in the coaches bringing the scouts from their stay in the mountains or abroad. And this way of telling everyone that he was "his favorite", asking him later to "keep their secret".
"I knew it was forbidden but I didn't think about the consequences"
“At the time, I did not realize the gravity of my acts. I knew it was prohibited and reprehensible, but I did not think of the consequences it would have for my victims. For me, it was gestures of tenderness, "pleads Bernard Preynat, acknowledging, however, that he" found sexual pleasure ".
Abused himself by a priest, he says he discovered very early on his attraction for children. At the age of 16 precisely. At the seminar, everyone already knew their deviances. In 1967, his superiors asked him to undergo psychotherapy. "I thought I was cured but it didn't work. They also thought I could be a priest. ” He never saw the point of getting treatment again. “I did not have a good memory of it. I did not want to start again later. I counted more on my will. It has been an ongoing battle against me, "he said, adding that he had made a promise in 1991 to Cardinal Courtray to stop his actions. Promise he says he kept. But Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill remains skeptical.
"When I saw him a few months later. He had just been appointed to a new parish. On the day I took office, he saw me and called me from his window to tell me to come. I yelled that I didn't want to go. What would have happened if I had ridden? He wants us to believe that he had stopped. He certainly would not have offered to play Scrabble or play a game of small horses. "We can indeed wonder about his motivations, supports Emmanuelle Haziza, lawyer for civil parties. Difficult to believe that it stopped by the operation of the Holy Spirit ”. A question that burns your lips. "I grant you that there was no denunciation for facts dating from after 1991 but the analysis that you deliver on your will is a bit ... limit", notes the vice-prosecutor, Dominique Sauve.
At the helm, Bernard Preynat repents but does not falter: "I never did it again". Debates will continue on Wednesday with the testimony of three alleged victims and the examination of the accused's personality.
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