40 years later, the Church acknowledges the details | EUROtoday

40 years later, the Church acknowledges the details
 | EUROtoday

Lhe mild inexperienced eyes fixing his interlocutor, the ruffled grey hair, a dinner within the emergency as a earring, Gilles Tillet let go of those phrases as we put a bomb: “At 10 years old, I was raped by Father Bernard Preynat. Like thousands of other children. Thousands.

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In 2020, in the course of the trial of the priest Bernard Preynat, ex-scout head of the Saint-Luc group, the pedocrimunes admitted on the helm: “At the time, I did not realize the gravity of these acts. […] It happened every weekend and during the scout camps, it could be four or five in a week. “The former priest, who died on June 23, 2024, would have sexually assaulted” between 3,000 and 4,000 “children over a period from 1971 to 1991, according to the calculations of a lawyer for civil parties.

More than forty years after the facts, Gilles Tillet decided to share his testimony to Point. “When I arrived at Scouts Saint-Luc in the 1980s, everyone knew that Bernard Preynat loved little boys. It is even the first thing I was told. Be careful, Bernard Preynat touches and fiddles with little boys. “Then, in a voice where perceived anger, he hammered:” Bernard Preynat violated me, he destroyed me, he rots me to the heart of my being, to the depths of my cells. »»

Bernard Preynat, a charismatic scout chef who looks like a guru

Gilles Tillet was born in 1971. He grew up in a “extremely believing” Catholic bourgeois family in an education “at Betharram”, imbued with physical and psychological violence. Frequenting the old parish of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (Rhône), his parents then meet Father Bernard Preynat.Read too Pedocrime in the church: the overwhelming testimony of Patrick Goujon “My mother described him as a man of a striking charismatic aura, but he was also scary. He looked like adventurous, was very strong, in his forties, with a smile, aviator -type sunglasses and shorts. He was quite offbeat, but had a great power of conviction, like a guru. On the recommendations of an aunt, Gilles Tillet then joined the Saint-Luc scout group, led by the priest. He was then 9 years old.

From his first steps in the scouts, the boy was warned by his comrades. “I had to tighten my belt because” the father “could arise at any time behind, take us in his arms and slide his hands under our pants. Same advice for the scarf, he slipped his “big prayers” on our chest. A narrative that echoes the numerous testimonies of the opposite victims in the course of the non secular trial.

“Everyone knew”

According to the investigators, the Church was already conscious, in 1978, of the primary details on younger minors. “There was a kind of omerta, everyone knew,” says Gilles Tillet. Over the varied authorized proceedings, it seems that Bernard Preynat was certainly protected by his hierarchy. In 1991, the bishop of Lyon transferred him to Neulise (Loire). In 1999, he was despatched to Cours-la-Ville (Rhône), then to Coteau (Loire) two years later. Appointed dean in 2003, he turned answerable for six parishes.Read too Jean-Marc Sauvé: “I had the feeling of facing absolute evil” An omerta denounced by the affiliation of victims the liberated phrase. In 2016, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin stated, at a press convention, “with the greatest strength”, not having coated any act of pedophilia, letting this staggering sentence escape: “The majority of the facts, thanks to God, are prescribed. »A sentence that will inspire François Ozon’s film Thanks to Godwhich denounces the sexual abuses committed by Bernard Preynat.

At the head of the Saint-Luc scouts, Father Prynat orchestrane many summer camps and attractive travel. Corsica, Ireland, Spain, Greece … He seduced the parents who were trying to entrust their children to him. And it is in the tent of the scout camps, in his office at the parish, in the sacristy before mass, and even at the back of the bus during the outings he perpetuated his crimes.

“He violated me a dozen instances”

Gilles Tillet was not a good scout, he confesses with a hint of self-mockery. “I used to be not guide, unable to make fireplace … I used to be additionally a giant mouth, slightly mocking and I made noise. “One day, Father Bernard Preynat asks the boy to follow him,” as he was going to search for different youngsters earlier than me, with out my understanding what was happening with them “.

It was in these moments that the priest raped the very young scouts, using perverse submission games. For three or four months, Gilles Tillet was his prey. “He violated me about ten times with this constant operating mode. Then, one day, he stopped. It was another’s turn. »»

During his trial, Bernard Preynat declared after the testimonies of the victims: “These had been gestures with out violence, gestures of tenderness by which I discovered some pleasure. It took me some time to find that it was dangerous and condemned in view of the age of the youngsters. »»

Following these rapes, Gilles Tillet didn’t speak in confidence to his family-because “there was a system of authority and violence in my family, with a taboo of children’s sexuality and speech”-and developed traumatic amnesia, this symptom attribute of post-traumatic stress abundantly documented by medical literature. For nearly forty years, Gilles Tillet has not stored any memory of the endured abuse.

The exhausting elevating of amnesia

In 2020, in the course of the trial of Bernard Preynat, Gilles Tillet started to be assaulted by panic crises. “I couldn’t sleep anymore, I was crying for nothing,” recollects the fifties. At 48, reminiscences of rape scenes brutally floor. “For about three months, I made the scenes again – the gestures, the smell of Preynat, these twisted games where I became” the igniter “…”

He then undertook painful introspection with a psychologist and realizes that all the existence carries the indelible imprint of the abuses of Bernard Preynat. Professional screenwriter, he spent, in accordance with him, twenty years to energetic solidarity revenue (RSA).

“During all these years, I tried to write films that did not succeed, always in this dynamic of the failure of raped people … The interesting aspect is that I understood that I was raped, I left the RSA immediately, I managed to sell my writing talent to companies, to sell scenarios, etc. »»

On the sentimental level, Gilles has undergone other rapes growing up and has developed sexual addictions to risk games, a recurring sequelae observed in victims of sexual assault during childhood.

Read too Notre-Dame de Bétharram case: “At evening, he got here, sturdy cassock, within the dormitories” After the lifting of his traumatic amnesia, Gilles Tillet filed a complaint against Bernard Preynat, but as for the vast majority of complaints, the facts were prescribed. It is for this reason that the pedocrimune was sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault out of ten very young minors.

He also confided in his companion and his brother. His parents did not recognize the severity of the facts. “My father stated to me:” When you live what you have experienced, we dig a hole and we buried it “,” moves Gilles Tillet. To date, the man has broken contact with his parents. “This sentence always haunts me. I don’t want to talk to them anymore. »»

Inirr, “revolutionary” justice

To try to obtain justice despite the prescription, Gilles Tillet contacted the independent national recognition and repair body (INSIRR). According to the mission letter addressed by the Church of France to the current president of the body, Marie Derain de Vaucresson: “Inirr goals to carry the responsibility of justice and reparation for individuals victims of sexual violence within the Church, after they had been minor. »»

Since 2022, the 12 months of inirr creation, practically 1,600 victims of pedocrime within the church have seized the physique and, on March 24, 2025, 1,235 had been accompanied, in accordance with the president of the INSIRR. Since 2022, 765 restore selections have been rendered, 99 % of which have a monetary dimension, and “132 grant the maximum amount” of 60,000 euros.

Read too Sexual abuse within the Church: “Never will repair will be up to par” After ten months of ready, Gilles Tillet was capable of focus on for ten hours divided into 4 periods with a psychologist. Then, the person was capable of confront the present bishop of Lyon. Even if the assembly didn’t have the anticipated results in accordance with the sufferer, it seems glad with this confrontation.


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Subsequently, Gilles Tillet was capable of obtain a letter of recognition from the Inirr. “This letter signifies that the church believes me. It was a giant step to have an official letter, “stated Gilles Tillet, relieved. He additionally acquired, in compensation for his injury, 60,000 euros, the utmost quantity of economic compensation proposed by the INIRR. “I discovered this justice of the Church stunning. It is revolutionary this fashion of compensating rapes dedicated so way back by generally deceased individuals. »»

Today, Gilles is healthier. After the popularity of Inirr, he felt the sensation of being a sublimated model of himself. “With Bernard Preynat and the violence of my dad and mom, I turned a baby then an grownup very exhausting, very caustic, very brittle. Today, at my age, I believe that I lastly reconnected with the little harmless and humorous Gilles who made jokes together with his pals and brothers. »»


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