MICHEL AUPETIT. The former archbishop of Paris is the subject of a preliminary investigation for “sexual assault on a vulnerable person”.
[Mise à jour le 3 janvier 2023 à 18h05] The Church again in turmoil? This Tuesday, January 3, 2023, BFM TV reveals that Michel Aupetit, former archbishop of Paris, is the subject of a preliminary investigation for “sexual assault on a vulnerable person”. The file has been open since the end of November according to the news channel, which explains that the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation following receipt of a report from the diocese of the capital. According to information collected by BFM TV, Michel Aupetit would have had an affair with a person qualified as vulnerable and who was the subject of legal protection. However, at this stage, nothing allows to advance with certainty of any facts. Especially since according to a well-informed source quoted by theAFP, it will be an “exchange of mails”. It is up to the Persons Crime Prevention Brigade to determine the type of relationship between the two.
Who is the alleged victim?
If the Paris prosecutor’s office has not given details on the identity of the alleged victim, a source close to the file indicates to theAFP that it is a woman. The person’s age was not specified. It is also not specified whether it was she who directly made the report or whether she confided in a third party who alerted the authorities. However, according to the first elements transmitted, the precision of “vulnerable person” indicates that this is not a classic report. The law characterizes this qualification. It is, according to article 433-4 of the Penal Code, a “minor or a person who is unable to protect himself because of his age, illness, infirmity, a physical or psychological deficiency or a state of pregnancy.”
Otherwise, BFM TV mentions “judicial protection” to which the alleged victim is subject. A status granted to people whose “illness, disability, accident can alter [leurs] faculties and [les] render incapable of defending [leurs] interests.” The person concerned may then be placed under guardianship or curatorship.
Descriptions that corroborate the claims of theAFP who, according to his source familiar with the case, evoke a mental health of the alleged victim which must be analyzed, suggesting that the person would not have all his faculties of discernment. For his part, Me Jean Reinhart, lawyer for Michel Aupetit, did not expand on the subject: “We have absolutely no knowledge of a complaint, so we cannot give any indication on this subject.”