A 44-year-old Franco-Swiss man, former leader of a Protestant community dissolved in 2016, has been appearing since Friday until January 24 before the Haute-Garonne criminal court for violence against minors, rape of former followers and abuse of weakness. At the end of the 2000s, Olivier Freyre, aged 28 and worked at the Rotschild bank before embarking on a spiritual quest, his partner and several relatives had settled in Ganties, a small rural town in Haute-Garonne located in foot of the Pyrenees to found “L'Espoir”, a Protestant-inspired community.
This quickly met with some success and at its peak had between 80 and 90 members, attracted by the long preachings of the man who was called “the apostle”, broadcast on the community's website.
But in June 2016, the group suddenly announced its self-dissolution, directly calling into question, according to a press release published at the time in the daily La Croix, Olivier Freyre “founder and preacher of this mission” who “unfortunately turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing“.
Almost ten years later, the man who is now a sports coach in Drôme, began to respond to the magistrates of the criminal court of Toulouse about accusations of rape by former followers, which he denies, but also of violence against his children, facts that he admitted, as well as abuse of weakness.
-Shortly after the opening of the proceedings, an expert psychologist shed light on the personality of Olivier Freyre, evoking symptoms of bipolarity in the accused. Then his wife and mother of their six children testified at length at the bar, minimizing the role of Olivier Freyre in the excesses of the community, even if she admitted that his preaching was sometimes “too harsh, too radical”. If he was indeed the leader, she admitted, she evokes a “group phenomenon” where others also had their share of responsibility.
As for the rapes, it was, according to her, “relations adultérines“consented. Since the events, she indicated to the court that their relationship had “a work of self-criticism and rereading our past“. Olivier Freyre, after a little over a year of detention, was released under judicial supervision and appears free. The verdict of the Assize Court will be delivered on January 24.
