Gay date-rape: French priest held for drugging and raping minor he met on Grindr app – WION
A priest from northwestern France has been charged with drugging and raping a 15-year-old boy whom he allegedly met on a homosexual dating app called Grindr, according to prosecutors and legal authorities. After the two met in Paris last week via Grindr, the priest from a small parish close to Rennes was accused of aggravated rape and drugging the minor. RTL radio said that the 50-year-old pastor offered the minor multiple drugs in a hotel room, including the ecstasy-derivative MDMA and a chemical that resembled GHB, a notorious narcotic often used in date rape. The minor fell ill later and alerted his friends.
The case is the latest in a string of sexual assault accusations that have severely tarnished the image of the church in France. The confessions of a cardinal earlier this week stunned French Catholics yet again after an investigation last year exposed the appalling extent of sexual abuse by priests in recent decades.
One of the most senior Catholic officials in France, Jean-Pierre Ricard, confessed to “reprehensible” conduct with a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s on Monday, prompting a court investigation. Church officials further disclosed that 10 other retired and working bishops were accused of sexual misconduct.
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As per the priest from Rennes, he frequently travelled to the capital to meet men for drug-fuelled hookups in hotels. He denied the rape accusation by asserting that the minor had stated he was older than 18 on his Grindr profile.
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“I can imagine how men and women will be outraged by this case,” the archbishop of Rennes, Pierre d’Ornellas, said in a statement, adding that he had alerted the Vatican about the arrest and charges.
A church-led investigation that reported its findings in 2021, found that an estimated 216,000 minors had been sexually abused by clergy over the past seven decades.
(With inputs from agencies)
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