Father Bernard Preynat was sentenced in March 2020 to five years in prison for sexual assault on minors. Incarcerated for two years, he requested parole or home detention under an electronic bracelet. One of the victims, Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, strongly opposes it.
Will Bernard Preynat soon be released from prison? A sentence enforcement judge must soon rule on the request of the former clergyman who spent two years behind bars. The septuagenarian made a request for conditional release or sentence modification. Also condemned by the Church, he was reduced to the status of layman in 2019.
Bernard Preynat was convicted in March 2020 for sexual assault on ten minors between 1971 and 1991, by the Lyon criminal court. Acts committed against young scouts from the diocese of Lyon. Facing him, at the time of the trial, were 10 civil parties. Several dozen other facts fell within the statute of limitations. The former priest had given up on appealing.
Now aged 78, Bernard Preynat is serving a five-year prison sentence. Behind bars since November 2021, he was first detained in Saint-Étienne, then in Riom, in Puy-de-Dôme.
The inmate, however, has fragile health. Former priest asked to be released from prison due to adjudicated condition “worrying”. When asked, his lawyer, Me Frédéric Doyez, did not wish to speak.
The Clermont-Ferrand sentence enforcement judge will soon have to rule on Bernard Preynat’s request. The victims were also informed by mail. “Mr. Bernard Preynat requested the granting of a sentence reduction in the form of conditional release or home detention under electronic surveillance.explains the letter dated October 18 received in particular by Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, civil party in the case.
Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill is a former member of La Parole Libéré, the association which brought to light this scandal of child abuse in the Church within the diocese of Lyon. He is one of the rare victims whose case was not time-barred and who was able to become a civil party during the trial of Philippe Barbarin and that of Bernard Preynat.
“This gentleman himself was abused as a child. I forgive the child, but not the adult who reproduced.” On the phone, his anger seems more nuanced, but Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill does not budge: Bernard Preynat must remain behind bars. Impossible for him to see it come out after two years. “Let him serve his sentence to the end, that’s his punishment, his penance!”
Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, civil party in the trial of Bernard Preynat (archives) • © France tv
Informed by the courts on October 18 of the former clergyman’s request, he immediately made his position on the subject known in writing, as provided for by law. A position expressed in a letter tinged with indignation and cold anger that we were able to consult.
Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill opposes Today “categorically to any remission of sentence and any adjustment”. This victim of Father Preynat wishes “firmly” that the former priest “carry out his sentence until its end”, he writes. A non-negotiable request for the abused child of the past. “I believe that age is not a valid reason to be removed from prison (…) that he serves his sentence to the end!” he explains on October 26 on the phone. What about the argument of the fragile state of health of the former priest? Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, suspicious, warns: “this man is a manipulator. He manipulated the crowds, you had to see his great sermons.”
More than three years after the trial of the former priest, the latter is still torn between anger and indignation. Keeping Bernard Preynat behind bars to serve his entire sentence “would soothe him” despite everything, he agrees. But for him, the former man of the Church guilty of pedophile acts has already gotten away with it.
He escaped much heavier. He was only sentenced to five years in prison, while the maximum in prison is 10 years (…) He can consider himself lucky. He escaped the criminal court. If all the complaints had been accepted, he could have been sentenced to 20 or 30 years.
Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill
In his letter to the sentence enforcement judge, invoking “common sense”he advances his major argument : “this man sexually assaulted children for decades, not counting all the victims who did not come forward”.
In this same letter, he also recalls the role played in this scandal by Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon. If the prelate had denounced the priest when he became aware of his actions, certain prescriptions could have been avoided, according to him. “Releasing Preynat is an insult to the victims. We also make fun of the victims who were raped and were unable to have a trial. My thoughts are especially with them,” he declared this morning on the phone.
Bernard Preynat uses his right. His request is legal, it is part of French law and it must be accepted. But the victims received life sentences, including me even though I moved forward in life. We have lifelong aftereffects. Families were also destroyed.
Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill
As provided for by law, as a civil party, he also wishes to be informed of all the terms of execution of Bernard Preynat’s sentence until its end. Finally, he also intends to be informed of his release. “You will easily understand that I refuse to see a pedophile, who only served five years in prison, being able to be released,” concluded Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill in his letter.
The former abused young scout has become an adult, whose anger is intact: “today, one child in five is abused or raped and nothing is happening, there is nothing concrete. This is potentially 20% of adults who risk being in great difficulty“.
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