The facts took place on Sunday February 27 on the forecourt of the Saint-Michel basilica. The priest had not lodged a complaint but the prosecution had opened an investigation.
The man who spat in the face of a priest of the Saint-Michel basilica in Bordeaux, Sunday February 27 after mass, was sanctioned with a citizenship course and a ban on appearing within the perimeter of the square. Saint-Michel for six months, learned Le Figaro of the parquet floor of Bordeaux.
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The respondent was summoned on March 18 before the prosecutor’s delegate for a criminal composition including this sanction (the citizenship course and the ban on appearing). The criminal composition allows the public prosecutor to propose a sanction to the perpetrator to avoid a trial. It can be used if he admits his guilt. If he accepts the sanction, the agreement can be validated by the president of the court. On the other hand, if the author of the facts or the president of the court refuses, the prosecutor can institute proceedings.
A spit in the face
On a video relayed on Twitter by the account “Bordeaux Infowe could see the priest, on the forecourt of the church, trying to make his way through a crowd of itinerant traders while blessing them. The assailant then approaches him and spits in his face.
The priest who received the spit did not wish to file a complaint, but the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office – on the basis of this video – had taken the initiative to open an investigation in the act. Known as being a regular in the neighborhood, the respondent had been arrested by the police on Monday, February 28. Found in possession of a switchblade knife, he had been taken into custody for “voluntary violence without ITT because of the victim’s belonging to a specific religion”.
“In police custody, the person concerned admitted the spitting but denied having knowledge of the status of a priest of the victim, while explaining his gesture by the exasperation he had had to receive holy water on his head. . He was the subject of a psychiatric expertise and the expert concluded that his discernment was impaired.“, Tells us the parquet floor of Bordeaux.
“The criminal composition comes to sanction the acts committed against the priest whose quality he could not ignore given the clothes and attributes he wore allowing his identification as well as the prohibited carrying of category D weapons noted by the police.“, specifies the parquet floor. Already convicted in the past, the respondent had not been the subject of any judicial conviction for ten years.