Already convicted of targeting churches, the suspect in the fire that partially destroyed the Immaculate Conception church in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) on Monday morning was indicted and imprisoned on Wednesday, September 4. This man, born in 1985, with no profession and no fixed address, had just been released from prison on August 27, according to the public prosecutor of Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Guirec Le Bras.
On Wednesday, he was charged with “destruction of property by means dangerous to people, committed because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion as a repeat offender and attempted burglary as a repeat offender.” A criminal qualification that carries a sentence of fifteen years in prison, thirty in the event of a repeat offence, the prosecutor stressed.
Arrested on Monday, the thirty-year-old was placed in provisional detention. He admitted “climbing into the church to burgle it” and explained “that before leaving the premises, he had decided to set fire to it”the prosecutor explained in a press release.
Read also | The bell tower of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer collapses after a “major fire”
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Twenty-six convictions
The criminal record of the man, who was living in a shelter at the time of the events, includes twenty-six convictions, including two for destruction of property by dangerous means and one for damage or deterioration of a place of worship, following the deliberate arson of four churches in Boulogne in 2021. His other convictions related to theft by burglary, by trickery or with damage, the prosecution lists.
Due to his criminal history, “psychiatric and psychological assessments will have to take place (…) in order to understand his exact motivations (…) in view of their repeat offences, particularly with regard to places of worship”the prosecutor emphasizes.
During his trial for the burning of the four churches in Pas-de-Calais in January 2022, the man explained that he had acted ” due to [son] passé » : abandoned by his parents and entrusted to a foster family, he had said that he had been “raped” by his adoptive father “from 5 to 6 and a half years old”. “Every time I watch TV and all that, the priests are pointers [pédophiles]. This is why I attack churches”he said. According to the psychiatrist who examined him at the time, the defendant presented a “real psychological suffering” et “sought to be in prison because he felt safer there than outside”According to prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, the accused did not make any statements of this nature after his arrest for the church of Saint-Omer.
Fundraising launched by the Heritage Foundation
The church, located in a suburb of Saint-Omer, was devastated by the fire that broke out on Monday around 4:30 a.m. This neo-Gothic church, inaugurated in 1859, had been restored between 2014 and 2018.
The fire destroyed the bell tower, which collapsed, as well as almost all of the roofs and the 19th century Merklin organ.e century that was inside. The Bishop of Arras, Olivier Leborgne, went to its forecourt on Wednesday morning for a “time of prayer and silence”in the presence of some 300 people.
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“A religious building is a place that connects: it connects people to each other by uniting them with God.”said the bishop, according to a verbatim report sent to Agence France-Presse. “The emotion in the Haut-Pont district is significant,” a representative of the diocese pointed out. A kitty launched by the Heritage Foundation to participate in the reconstruction of the building had collected, by the end of Wednesday, approximately 16,000 euros of the 200,000 set as a target.
The fire at this church has sparked strong emotion on social media. The boss of X and Tesla, Elon Musk, himself relayed a conspiracy message on the social network on Monday, accompanied by a video of the burning bell tower, questioning the criminal nature of the disaster. Also on X, the mayor of Saint-Omer, François Decoster, sent him the link to the kitty in return.
