Nearly 1,600 victims of pedocrime in the church in France have seized the independent national body of recognition and reparation (INIRR) since 2022, with new requests aroused in particular by the media coverage of the Abbé Pierre affair and the scandal of physical and sexual violence of the Notre-Dame-de-Betharram establishment, in the southwest of France.
Inirr, the independent national authority for recognition and repair, a body created at the end of 2021 by the Conference of Bishops of France, compensates and accompanies the victims of pedocrime in the church. She presented to the press this Tuesday, March 25, her 2024 report. Since her creation, she has accompanied 1,580 people, including Gilles Tillet, to whom she chose to give the floor to make her mission known a little more.
Gilles Tillet is 53 years old, he is a screenwriter. He was ten years old when he was violated by Father Preynat, a priest at the origin of one of the biggest pedocriminal scandals within the church in France. The memories of the fifties resurfaced until 2019. “ During the preynat trial, the day before the verdict, I started to have important crises of anxiety, panic, crises of tears, insomnia, he recalls himself. I thought it was due to my work because I have always struggled in my work. And I have concretely resumed the preynat rape scenes. »»
Gilles decides to file a complaint. But as with many other victims of the priest, the facts are prescribed. On the advice of a cousin, he therefore contacts theInirrthe recognition and repair body for the victims of the Church. “” When you are raped to nine or ten years, as is my case, my brain has switched. As it is the past and it’s far away, does it really happen? This is really an atrocious question. As the whole society maintains that it has not happened … everyone knew, prevents it from putting a real doubt in the brain. And so that’s why I wrote a document that I brought. »»
Read too Sexual violence in Betharram: the congregation admits its “responsibility” in “massive abuses”
The consequences of rape on a child
Gilles takes a thick backrest out of a bag. He compiled articles on Father Preynat, personal photos of the time, the stories of his memories. It is with these documents that he meets the professionals of INIRR. With their help, the fifties managed to understand the extent of the consequences of the rape he suffered. “” I was able to deconstruct my life. I was a virgin until I was 28 years old. I was a good student. So why behind 25 years of RSA [un complément de revenu pour les travailleurs les plus pauvres] ? There is really a huge problem actually. »»
“” So realize that I had been raped more the approach with the INIRR allowed me almost to be out of the RSA. I settled with my boyfriend too, when we had been together for fourteen years. It was concrete. What is it to rape a kid? So. What is it on his brain? “, He denounces.
If Gilles speaks today, it is to encourage the words of other victims. So he rejoices when she frees herself, just as recently with the Betharram affair. “” We do not imagine the courage of people. It’s incredible what it actually requires, these people, but well done what! “Exclaims the fiftieth anniversary. Bravo that the room sends back to him, a rare thing at a press conference.
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