France: no criminal investigation for Father Pierre, everything is prescribed

No criminal investigation can be opened to establish responsibilities in the multiple accusations of sexual assault targeting the abbot Pierre, who died in 2007 since the summer of 2024, the facts being prescribed, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday, requested by the ‘AFP.

The Catholic Church, by the voice of the President of the Conference of Bishops of France, had asked mid-January to study the possibility of an investigation into the Abbé Pierre affair, with a report “for non-denunciation of rape and sexual assault on vulnerable and minor people ”.

By mail, on January 24, “the Paris prosecutor’s office said that public action was extinguished by the death of the defendant in 2007 in what concerned him personally, and prescribed with regard to denunciations of facts, “he said.

“The aim of a judicial investigation is to seek whether criminal facts can be reprehensible and must be judged. If it happens that the prosecution opens surveys on the denunciation of facts manifestly prescribed in the prejudice of minors, as a ministerial circular has also encouraged, it is in order to seek if other minors would have subsequently been victims of similar facts ”, develops the prosecution.

“If these more recent facts prove to be not prescribed, the prosecution can then initiate prosecution against the respondent for all the facts. This is obviously not the case when it died, ”he adds.

The non-denunciation of offenses, a distinct crime, “aims to ensure that, as long as the victim is unable to act by himself, people who know the facts prevent them from reproduce, and allow them to be judged, ”according to the same source.

But “the analysis of the three EGAE reports did not reveal the situation of victims for which the commission of a possible non-denunciation would still be likely to prosecute,” it was said.

Long iconic figure of the defense of the destitute, Father Pierre, his real name Henri Grouès, was targeted at the end of January by 33 accusations of sexual violence.

These sexual assaults and rapes have been revealed in three different reports published since July 2024 by the Egaé cabinet, mandated by the Emmaüs movement and the Abbé Pierre Foundation to shed light on the priest’s actions.

The facts denounced date back to a period from 1950s to the 2000s.

The Abbé Pierre Foundation, which the priest had created with relatives in 1987, officially changed name on January 25 to become the “foundation for the accommodation of disadvantaged”.