French priest charged over alleged gay date-rape with minor | World Info

A priest working in northwest France has been charged after being accused of drugging and raping a 15-year-old he met by a gay relationship app, prosecutors and approved sources acknowledged Thursday.

The priest from a rural parish near Rennes has been charged with aggravated rape and administering drugs to a minor after arranging a gathering in Paris ultimate week on the app Grindr.

The 50-something clergyman proposed quite a few drugs to the boy in a resort room, along with ecstasy-derivative MDMA and a substance that resembled GHB, a notorious date-rape narcotic, RTL radio reported.

The lads had intercourse, nonetheless the boy felt unwell afterwards and alerted buddies.

The case is the latest in a deluge of sexual assault scandals which have severely undermined the church in France.

After an inquiry ultimate yr revealed the stunning scale of sexual abuse by clergymen in newest a few years, French Catholics had been left shocked as soon as extra earlier this week by the confessions of a cardinal.

Jean-Pierre Ricard, one among many nation’s most senior Catholic figures, admitted to “reprehensible” acts with a 14-year-old woman inside the Nineteen Eighties on Monday, sparking a judicial enquiry.

Church leaders revealed on the similar day that one different 10 retired or serving bishops confronted sexual abuse allegations.

The priest from Rennes instructed investigators he repeatedly obtained right here to the capital to meet males for drug-fuelled hook-ups in resorts, RTL reported.

He denied the rape allegations, saying the boy indicated he was over 18 on his Grindr profile and he had not requested any questions.

“I can take into consideration how ladies and men might be outraged by this case,” the archbishop of Rennes, Pierre d’Ornellas, acknowledged in a press launch, together with that he had alerted the Vatican regarding the arrest and costs.

He named the priest as Yannick Poligne, together with: “I understand and should assure you of my dedication to take movement.”

A church-backed inquiry that reported its findings ultimate yr found that an estimated 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the earlier seven a few years.