The facts that led to the priest of the diocese of Evreux being placed in police custody on Monday, April 5, took place several years ago and were revealed by the young man he attacked. The priest of Verneuil-d’Avre-et-d’Iton (Eure) has been indicted for “attempted sexual assault on a minor”, announced Friday April 7 the public prosecutor of Evreux, Rémi Coutin.
The investigation began on February 20 following a report by the bishop of the diocese, Mgr Christian Nourrichard, after a 21-year-old young man confided in January to another priest that he had been the victim of inappropriate behavior towards him by the priest of Verneuil-d’Avre-et-d’Iton (Eure).
Heard by the gendarmes, the young man reported an episode which took place when he was 13 years old, in his family vacation home, where the priest had been invited. The priest had given him “tickles” under his t-shirt and had “put his head on his stomach”which had it “made uncomfortable”the prosecutor reported on Friday.
The young man then reported other facts that occurred in August 2019, when he was 17, during a holiday camp in Vendée, where he slept in the same room as the priest. “Twice, during two different nights, he says that the father was masturbating and that he tried to touch his sex”said the prosecutor.
Prohibited from all contact with minors by the diocese
During his police custody, the priest, born in 1968, disputed the facts, indicating that he masturbated ” regularly “ and that he “happened to him[ait] to consult homosexual pornographic sites ».
One of the young man’s brothers also reported having experienced “roughly similar” during a summer camp in 2006. But the prosecutor pointed out that the indictment only concerned “the facts reported by the youngest of the victims”. “Older facts seemed prescribed to us”he added.
The bishop of Evreux announced in a press release the opening of a canonical preliminary investigation, entrusted to the vice-official of the national canonical criminal court.
“As a precaution and pending the decisions of state justice and then canonical justice, I have issued a suspensive decree which prohibits him from celebrating any sacrament and sacramentals and from having any contact with minors”added M.gr Nurse, letting it be known that the priest was going “join an adapted structure” outside the diocese of Evreux.