A priest was sentenced on Friday November 8 to eighteen years in prison for rape and sexual assault committed on several children, notably when he was a priest in the village of Massiac (Cantal).
Philippe Pouzet, 70, was also sentenced to a treatment order, five-year socio-judicial monitoring, a ban on traveling to Cantal and a ban on any activity with minors for life.
At the end of his trial before the Cantal Assize Court, Attorney General Paolo Giambiasi demanded fifteen years in prison. “for society, and for (…) to do justice » to the family of the victims. The priest was on trial for the sexual assault of four children from the same family and the rape of one of them around 2017, as well as for the sexual assault, in 1994, of a teenager, now aged 44.
This large family of seven children, isolated in the city, was the target of the one who, priest of Massiac from 2011 to 2017, organized evenings at the presbytery, offered gifts, lent his car or paid for a telephone plan.
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Dozens of sexual assaults
During the hearing, Philippe Pouzet admitted dozens of sexual assaults and the rape of a 14-year-old teenager, while ensuring that the children were at the initiative or “in search of themselves”.
“He does not recognize the victims’ status”estimated Jean-François Canis, lawyer for the families. “I am overwhelmed by all the pain that has come to the surface. I am the only one responsible for it”the accused finally declared before the court withdrew.
In his pleading, his lawyer, Frédéric Franck, asked the jurors not to take into account his client's difficulty in explaining his actions. “The facts are instinctive, that’s why he doesn’t know how to go further to explain them. (…) Don't blame him for that. He did, he committed, he doesn’t know how to explain”he argued when pleading against the fifteen years required.
“It’s a reinstatement of the death penalty, take a rope and go hang him (…) it will go faster”he said. In total, ten victims were interviewed, and a fifth child in the family claimed to have been raped himself.
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The Church knew
The investigation showed that the Church, aware of the priest's faults, had not interrupted his career: it had noted in particular about him “emotional problems”of the « moments d’abandon » which had led to « incidents ».
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In 1984 in Sommières (Gard), then a boarding school master, he was tried for “indecent assault”after sexually assaulting two children.
“We reread the story knowing what happened”justified Mgr Bruno Grua, former bishop of Saint-Flour, adding: “Of course, from time to time, I tell myself that I should have been more vigilant. » An investigation director who came to testify estimated that around ten priests were aware: “I don’t know why he wasn’t removed from his priesthood. »
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