A survey for sexual assault has been opened to verify the materiality of the facts that would have taken place in the 90s and look at the question of prescription.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Two accusations of sexual assault that took place in the 90s target a monk from the Norman abbey of the Bec-Hellouin, we learned Wednesday January 4 in a Communicated press release on the website of the Conference of Religious and Religious of France .
“As an abbot commissioner of the abbey of the Bec-Hellouin, I was informed in July 2020 of the accusation of serious facts of sexual assault concerning Brother Joël”, we can read in this Communiqué written by Dom Mark-Ephrem Nolan, administrator of this Benedictine congregation located in Eure, and also signed by Antoine Garapon, president of Renaissance and repair commission (CRR) , confirming information published in the regional weekly Norman Awakening. /p>
The congregation prohibited this brother “to confess, to preach, to exercise a ministry and finally to celebrate the Eucharist”, according to the text which reports “report to the public prosecutor of Evreux “As well as a” distance from the abbey since December 18, 2022 “.
open investigation
The prosecutor of Evreux, Rémi Coutin, confirmed to the agency France-Presse (AFP) having “received on December 28 a report emanating from an abbot father leading an abbey in Northern Ireland” who denounced ” Acts of sexual assault which would have been committed by a brother in the 90s in two adult women, identified and who will be heard by the investigators “.
A survey for sexual assault, entrusted to the Bernay’s research brigade, was opened to verify the materiality of the facts and look at the question of prescription, which is “likely”, according to Mr. Coutin. “The gendarmes will seek if there have been other victims”, specifies the prosecution, which asks to “let justice and the gendarmerie do their job and not to (…) try to establish parallel justice”.
The prosecutor was surprised by the “long, very long” time limit for the authorities by the abbey, two years and two internal surveys after being aware of it. Contacted by AFP, Father Commissioner Mark-Ephrem Nolan defended himself concerning the deadline taken to contact the prosecutor: “The first elements brought to our attention in 2020 were insufficient to make a report to justice, I do not had no proof. Once I had something in my hands, I sent it. “