Prison sentence for cleric who sexually abused many children

According to French press reports, the Vendée criminal court sentenced 56-year-old priest Pierre de Maillard for sexually abusing 33 people, mostly children.

In the case, which was closed to the public, the court sentenced Maillard to 20 years in prison.

The court prohibited Maillard from having contact with children throughout his life and from setting foot in the provinces of Vendée and Charente-Maritime.

After his release from prison, Maillard will be subject to social and judicial monitoring for 10 years, during which time he will receive treatment. If he does not comply with the court order, Maillard will also serve another 5 years in prison.

Following the complaints, the French priest Maillard was arrested and tried in 2020.

PRIESTS CONFIRMED ABUSE

In the report published by the France-based Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in Churches (CIASE) on October 5, 2021, it is stated that 216,000 children have been sexually abused in the country’s churches since 1950.

Adding the cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by employees of private schools and institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church, this figure reaches 330,000, and it was noted that sexual abuse in churches is a “systematic phenomenon.”

The president of CIASE, Jean-Marc Sauve, in his statement, emphasized that the Catholic Church did not take the necessary measures against incidents of sexual abuse and called on this institution to assume its responsibility.

The diocese had accepted the “institutional responsibility of the Catholic Church” in cases of child sexual abuse and that “abuse is a systematic phenomenon in the church.” (AA)