French prosecutors drop 'sexual assault' probe into cardinal
French prosecutors said Saturday they had closed an investigation launched into a cardinal who admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl because the statute of limitations had expired, sparking anger among campaigners.
The probe was launched in November last year after a statement by Jean-Pierre Ricard, a retired bishop made a cardinal by pope Benedict XVI in 2006.
But Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP: "The case was closed due to the statute of limitations."
The most serious sexual offences in France, such as rape, usually have a statute of limitations of 30 years.
Taken into custody on February 2, he told investigators he had "kissed" the girl, who he said had been about 13 years old. He had also embraced her and "caressed her over her clothes", but "there was no sexual intercourse", he added.
The victim told investigators the assaults had happened over a three-year period.
Be Brave, which campaigns to end sexual violence against children, denounced the decision by the French legal system as a "masquerade" and a "travesty" of justice.
"Nothing has changed" since the publication of the French report into sexual abuse by the clergy, the group said in a statement, calling for wide-ranging judicial and parliamentary inquiries into paedophile criminal activity.
They also called for an end to the statute of limitations on this kind of crime.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...o-cardinal
French prosecutors said Saturday they had closed an investigation launched into a cardinal who admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl because the statute of limitations had expired, sparking anger among campaigners.
The probe was launched in November last year after a statement by Jean-Pierre Ricard, a retired bishop made a cardinal by pope Benedict XVI in 2006.
But Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP: "The case was closed due to the statute of limitations."
The most serious sexual offences in France, such as rape, usually have a statute of limitations of 30 years.
Taken into custody on February 2, he told investigators he had "kissed" the girl, who he said had been about 13 years old. He had also embraced her and "caressed her over her clothes", but "there was no sexual intercourse", he added.
The victim told investigators the assaults had happened over a three-year period.
Be Brave, which campaigns to end sexual violence against children, denounced the decision by the French legal system as a "masquerade" and a "travesty" of justice.
"Nothing has changed" since the publication of the French report into sexual abuse by the clergy, the group said in a statement, calling for wide-ranging judicial and parliamentary inquiries into paedophile criminal activity.
They also called for an end to the statute of limitations on this kind of crime.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...o-cardinal
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
