Aggression against an elder: a priest acquitted

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Charles Bizimana

David Prince

Friday, February 23, 2018 15:44

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Friday, February 23, 2018 15:44

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VAL-D’OR | A priest who was accused of sexual assault, forcible confinement and assault on a lady 79-year-old was acquitted because the judge believed neither the complainant nor the accused.

Charles Bizimana, 46 years old, was made in a bar in the city centre of Val-d’or on the morning of march 7, 2016 and there had met a man in his seventies – which we must conceal the identity under an order of the court – who had invited him to visit her home.

The following events, in the version of the accused as in those of the complainant, is full of contradictions. The alleged victim claimed to have lost consciousness after falling to the ground in the ensuing struggle, the priest had seized the wrists. It argued that Mr. Bizimana was in the process of the embrace, lying on her, when she woke up.

“When I woke up, he was lying on me and kissed me forcefully. […] I “potassait” like when we made bread”, she declared at the trial on Thursday.

The priest, who had arrived from Burundi in 2014 to preach the Good News in the Abitibi region, claimed rather to have wanted to help the lady when it was dropped using a glass of wine.

“I wanted to go and help him get up, but she started to treat me as a terrorist muslim and Black. She scratched under his right eye,” he testified.

The judge Steve Magnan was felt that neither the story of the accused nor the complainant were credible, having raised a significant amount of contradictions in their testimonies.

The court and the court had a reasonable doubt about the guilt of Mr Bizimana, was acquitted of three counts of the indictment.

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The lawyer of Mr. Bizimana, Daniel Faucher, said he always believed his client. “This gentleman-there is supposed to be dropped off here. He does not know our customs and traditions. He followed the lady and ended up in a position troubling,” he said.

Even if he was acquitted, it will be difficult for Mr. Bizimana to return to his post of vicar to the parish of Val-d’or. At the time of his arrest, in march 2016, the parish priest of the parish of Val-d’or Leandre Lapointe had told the Newspaper that Mr. Bizimana “was not integrated, but disintegrated”. He had even treated the story of “disgusting”.

Yvon Boucher, who was chauffeur for Mr. Bizimana before the events, had been disappointed of these comments. “It’s going to continue to be a priest, but surely in any other industry. It was done much too quickly. St. Peter had denied his boss and he was appointed head of his Church. It is necessary to wait for the evidence before condemning someone. Here, the evidence was thin,” he said.