The Catholic establishment judged in 2006 « civilly responsible » for rape and aggressions – Liberation

Justice had already seized the facts committed in Betharram, and rather twice as. The Catholic establishment Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the heart of a scandal of violence spreading out several decadeshad been declared in 2006 « Civilly responsible » of rape and sexual assault committed by an ex-director, according to a court decision revealed Sunday, May 11 by the daily South West.

In a judgment rendered on September 25, 2006, that AFP was also able to consult, the Pau Court of Appeal had sentenced the establishment for the actions of its former director Pierre Silviet-Carricartindicted for rape in 1998 before committing suicide in Rome in 2000.

His death had led to a criminal dismissal, but the complainant and his lawyer at the time, Me Gérard Boulanger, had continued the civil procedure and obtained six years later the condemnation of the institution, recognized « Civilly responsible » rape and sexual assault committed by the priest. The Court of Appeal notes in its judgment that the criminal investigation file has « Highlights the responsibility of Father Silviet-Carricart in the alleged act ».

If the interested party denied the rape occurred, according to the complainant, in 1988 in a bathroom of Betharram reserved for adults, the religious had conceded having helped the student to wash it, without being able to « Explain this choice of premises »underline the magistrates. Likewise, the fact that the former director is targeted by accusations of « Cares and masturbations » coming from another victim allows « Overcoming the suspicions of mythomania originally weighing » On the first complainant, noted the magistrates at the time.

Me Daniel Del Risco, new lawyer for the complainant and her mother, judge « Hallucinating » that this decision did not make more noise in 2006. « This judgment makes it possible to establish a judicial truthSaid the lawyer for AFP. « There have been actions that were partially recognized by the parish priest (…), and it was on this basis that (the judges) considered that there was a fault of the establishment »he sums up.

The complainant, who benefited at the time from 17,000 euros in damages, more recently seized the Recognition and Repair Commission (CRR) but this body, created in 2021 to compensate the victims of religious, has not yet decided, according to the lawyer.

Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, at the heart of a case that gave rise to some 200 criminal complaints for physical and sexual violence, had already been sentenced to civilian by the court of Pau, seized by the father of a student victim of blows, as revealed Mediapart in February.