French Cardinal has conviction for covering up abuse overturned

Cardinal Barbarin

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of France has had a conviction of failing to report acts of sexual abuse by a priest overturned on appeal.

In a case which rocked the French Catholic Church, in 2019, the 69-year-old archbishop of Lyon was given a six-month suspended prison sentence.

He was the highest-profile priest to be in a child abuse scandal in the French Church.

Cardinal Barbarin's case centred on Bernard Preynat, a former priest who was charged with abusing dozens of boys while a chaplain to the scouts in the 1980s and 1990s.

Preynat said his superiors knew about his "abnormal" behaviour as long ago as the 1970s.

The Cardinal admitted he heard "rumours" about Preynat in 2010 but said he only became aware of the alleged abuse following a conversation with one of the victims in 2014.

Later, he informed the Vatican of the allegations, removed Preynat from his post - but failed to inform the police.

In 2015 the allegations against Preynat became public and last March, the Cardinal was found guilty of covering up Preynat's abuse.

During his trial, the Cardinal insisted that he had "never tried to hide, let alone cover up, these horrible facts".

Following the ruling, he filed an appeal following the ruling, saying: "I cannot see clearly what I am guilty of".

Today, the Cardinal's lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani said the appeal court had accepted the evidence of a victim who had written to the cardinal to thank him for his advice on bringing Mr Preynat to justice.

Mr Luciani said the cardinal told the victim that the abuse he had suffered happened too long ago to be prosecuted, but advised the victim to find more recent incidents.

"The court has just acquitted the cardinal on the fundamentals of the case, by indicating that no offence has been committed, for a number of reasons...and for one key reason in particular: that the cardinal never intended to obstruct justice," Mr Luciani told reporters.

"This wrong was today righted...Cardinal Barbarin is innocent," he said.

Cardinal Barbarin had offered his resignation to Pope Francis following the original ruling, but the Pope refused it pending the outcome of his appeal.