Bishop Found Guilty of Covering Up Pedophilia
A French court found a Roman Catholic bishop guilty of failing to inform police that a priest in his diocese had admitted to sexually abusing children.
Pierre Pican, bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, received a three-month suspended sentence. He went on trial in June, accused of covering up for the priest, who has since been jailed for the rape of one boy and the sexual abuse of 10 others between 1989 and 1996.
Pican, 66, told the court that he confronted Father Rene Bissey in January 1997 after learning of one abuse case but that he failed to notify police of that and other offenses to which the priest admitted. Instead, he sent Bissey on a retreat and made him seek psychiatric help.
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