French ex-priest sentenced over sexual assault

By Cindi Cook

PARIS (AA) - In a scandal that has rocked the French Catholic Church, an elderly ex-priest was sentenced on Monday to five years in prison over sexual assaulting dozens of Boy Scouts.

The trial of Bernard Preynat, 75, took place in January, and the sentence was handed down in a criminal court today, with the defendant present.

The crimes occurred between 1971 and 1991 at weekend scouting camps organized by Preynat when he served as scout chaplain in the Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon region of eastern France.

The boys involved were between ages 7 and 15 at the time of the abuse.

Preynat was defrocked, his status permanently revoked, by a clerical body last July.

Charged in the scandal as well is Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, found guilty in March 2019 of failing to report the allegations against Preynat to the authorities.

Barbarin was given a six-month suspended prison sentence last spring, but he appealed the verdict. He stepped down from his post on March 6 and his resignation has been accepted by Pope Francis.

The prosecutor at today's sentencing, Dominique Sauves, said that Preynat had "used the silence of the parents and the silence of the church" in the crimes he carried out.