Opened last November, the investigation for "aggravated sexual assault" targeting the French cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, former archbishop of Bordeaux, was dismissed for prescription, said Saturday, February 25, the Marseille prosecutor's office.

"The procedure has been closed due to prescription", indicated the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, confirming information from France Info. 

Jean-Pierre Ricard was taken into custody on February 2.

In front of the investigators, he admitted having "kissed" a young girl, who was "in his memory aged 13, having hugged her and caressed her over her clothes" but "there was no sexual intercourse ", said the Marseille prosecutor's office.

During this police custody, he "asked forgiveness" from his victim, a teenager at the time, and with whom he was confronted.

These facts would have lasted three years according to the victim, who had finally filed a complaint.

They took place when Jean-Pierre Ricard was stationed in Marseille and ceased after his change of parish.

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On November 8, the Marseille prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation targeting Bishop Ricard who, the day before, had confessed in a letter to the Catholic hierarchy to having behaved "reprehensibly" towards a teenager 35 years ago.

The French episcopate had announced for its part that 11 bishops or former bishops had had to deal with civil justice or the justice of the Church for sexual "abuse" or their "non-denunciation".

On November 11, the Vatican in turn announced the opening of a preliminary investigation.

The declarations of this ex-archbishop of Bordeaux from 2001 to 2019, president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) from 2001 to 2007, and who had been appointed cardinal in 2006 by Benedict XVI, had caused a new earthquake in the Church of France.

Since October 2021 and the publication of the Sauvé report which estimated at some 330,000 the number of victims of priests, deacons, religious or people linked to the Church of France since 1950, cases and revelations have multiplied.

With AFP

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