Since July 2024, testimonies have been accumulating against a figure who has long been unassailable. “Special Envoy” reveals that Abbé Pierre is today accused of having attacked women of all ages, and even children. Rachel was 8 years old. Here is his story.
The latest report from the Egaé cabinet, unveiled on January 13, 2025, reports nine new accusations of sexual assault against Abbé Pierre, including one of rape of a minor. Because the charismatic man of the Church would also have attacked children… This is also what a particularly chilling testimony, broadcast by “Envoyé Spécial” on January 16, 2025. Now aged 58, Rachel agreed to testify, on condition of anonymity.
In 1973, when she met Abbé Pierre, she was 8 years old, and he was 61. At the time, the little girl was placed in a home because her mother was depressed, and her stepfather took care of her on weekends. This former missionary from Africa then lived in an Emmaüs community in eastern Paris. He is close to Abbé Pierre, Rachel explains, and the two men speak informally. One day, he takes the little girl to his house, who lives next door: “Abbot Pierre asks him to go for an errand, commence Rachel. And there, I find myself alone with Abbé Pierre, in his office.”
“He gets up, closes the door, and makes a gesture with his hand. And then he taps his knee, and he says to me, ‘Come and sit there.’ So I’m a little girl, I see that “He’s a little grandpa, I really have no apprehension. I go there, and very quickly, he hugs me.”
“With his left hand, he really crushes my torso, my chest, and he says to me at the same time, ‘You have a pretty little dress, I’m sure your panties are the same color’. And at that moment- there, he presses on my private parts, very, very strongly.”
Rachel, 8 years old at the timeTo “Special Envoy”
“I’m trying to get away, she says, I push his hand away. He grabs my jaw, and he turns my head towards his face and he pushes his tongue in. He kisses me quite violently. I’m struggling, and then he says to me, ‘Come on, it’s okay, go back and sit down’. And I go back to my seat.”
-Rachel says she was attacked a second time by Abbé Pierre a few months later. Until now, she had never found the strength to talk about it. Even today, she suffers from these “returning wounds”. “I still feel his hands on me, I still feel his tongue in my mouth,” she confides.
“Many times, I wanted to shout to the whole world that this man is not who he claims to be. But who would have believed me? People were not ready to hear that about Abbé Pierre at that time.”
Abbé Pierre’s iconic status protected him from scandal throughout his life. The man who was “the favorite personality of the French” seventeen times was able to act with complete impunity for more than seventy years. The scandal finally broke in July 2024, with a first series of accusations of sexual violence. Other equally shocking revelations followed in September. In this month of January 2025, there are a total of 33 testimonies accusing Abbot Pierre, for which verifications and cross-references with the priest’s life could be carried out.
Excerpt from “The demons of Abbé Pierre”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on January 16, 2025.
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