“We cannot establish a systematic link between being a victim and being a perpetrator,” assures the president of Inirr.

The newspaper “Le Parisien” revealed that a pedophile, sexually assaulted as a child, received 60,000 euros from the Inir, the National Independent Authority for Recognition and Reparation in the Church. The president denies any “mirror effect” in this decision.

A child molester who was sexually assaulted by a priest during his childhood received 60,000 euros from the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr) in the Church. The child molester’s lawyer stated in the columns of the newspaper The Parisian, Monday July 15, which Inirr recognized “the mirror effect” in the tormented life of his client. To understand that he would have committed sexual violence because he was a victim of it during his childhood. “The mirror effect is not a concept addressed by Inirr”disputes Marie Derain de Vaucresson, president of Inirr, contacted by France Inter on Monday.

Jean-Yves Schmitt was sexually assaulted by a priest, Félix Hutin, between the ages of 12 and 15 in a high school in Bourg-en-Bresse, during the 1960s. He was subsequently convicted five times for pedophilia, including a 10-year prison sentence in 2004. Today, he is being followed, at his own expense, by a psychiatrist, his lawyer emphasizes.

“The INIRR only intervenes for people who were victims within the Church during their childhood, and these are the only ones who have been taken into account”underlines Marie Derain de Vaucresson. The president of this body, which has compensated 679 people since March 2022 (figure as of July 12, 2024), specifies that the Inirr “necessarily looks at the entirety of people’s lives and their life paths. But on the one hand, the mirror effect is a concept that has absolutely not been addressed by Inirr and on the other hand, we cannot establish a systematic link between having been a victim and being a perpetrator”she insists.

Marie Derain de Vaucresson also wishes to point out that we cannot take this criterion into account, quite simply because “Most children who were abused as children (…) do not become abusers.” In the specific case of Jean-Yves Schmitt, now aged 73, he received 60,000 euros from Inirr because he “was a victim in his childhood and adolescence, and this is also justified by the fact that these were serious facts and that they lasted for a certain time”explains the president of the body. In the letter explaining its decision, which France Inter was able to consult, the Inirr makes no mention of “the mirror effect”.

Contacted by France Inter, Jean-Yves Schmitt’s lawyer maintained his version: this is the first time that the Church “recognizes that someone abused by a priest becomes an abuser because of the priest’s behavior towards the adolescent he was”says Emmanuel Ludot. The latter says “grateful for the financial will” of the Church and which the latter recognizes “that there have been serious things that have happened within the Church for many, many years”.

The lawyer has a much more critical view of French justice “when she prosecuted and punished her client.” A justice that “did not look into what he really was and what caused his abusive behavior.” The 60,000 euros in compensation will not “not necessarily make him happier”notes Me Emmanuel Ludot. His client has “lost everything” : his wife left “for a long time, his children have broken all emotional ties, (…) he learned that he was a grandfather, he will never see his grandchildren.”

Since March 2022, 1,453 people have contacted Inirr (figure as of July 12, 2024), 969 people have been or are being supported by Inirr, of whom 679 (70%) have received financial compensation ranging from 9,000 to 60,000 euros.