A 35-year-old man accuses a Nice priest of sexual assault when he was 11 years old.
A shockwave within the Church. Following the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, the Nice priest Jean-Marc Schoepff, 65, was again charged this Tuesday for sexual abuse of a minor under 15.
Already incarcerated in 2019 for similar charges, the proceedings were ultimately annulled due to a procedural error. This former youth chaplain in Nice is the target of nine complaints in total.
The case that revives the matter involves Sébastien Liautaud, a 35-year-old from Antibes, who accuses the priest of sexual assault during a trip to Rome in 1997. He was 11 years old at the time. However, the statute of limitations has not yet been reached.
The judge will therefore be able to organize a confrontation between the two parties. The lawyer for Jean-Marc Schoepff announced that his client “totally denies the facts.”
This indictment is reminiscent of Jean-Marc Sauvé’s report, which reveals more than 216,000 assaults on minors in the church over the past seventy years.
