A French priest involved in an investigation in France into “sexual abuse” in Morocco of minors over 15 and young adults, tried to justify himself by talking about “freely consented acts”, Saint-Étienne prosecutors said this Thursday.
Also subject to a complaint filed with the Casablanca prosecutor’s office, Father Antoine Exelmans, 60, is the subject of a preliminary investigation into “sexual abuse of adults and minors over 15 years of age by a person in a position of authority due to his position,” prosecutor Anne Gaches wrote in a press release.
Residing in the Loire since returning to France in the summer of 2024, the priest was questioned there by judicial police in July. Father Exelmans allegedly had sexual relations with migrants and refugees he cared for in Morocco, including minors, while he was working in the country he was sent to by his diocese of Rennes from 2016 until the summer of 2024.
He “confirmed that the sexual acts” he was accused of “would have occurred between 2020 and 2024, in Rabat and Casablanca”, and that they had “always been freely consented”, continued Anne Gaches. The judge said he was “asked by the Archbishop of Rennes” in relation to priests “who worked in the Central African Republic, then in Morocco until the summer of 2024”.
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“Sexual Exploitation System”
The affair was exposed in early November by the Moroccan information site Enass, which spoke of a real “system of sexual exploitation” created by Father Exelmans. The Saint-Étienne prosecutor detailed that “a canonical investigation carried out by the Archdiocese of Rabat, then forwarded to the Saint-Étienne prosecutor’s office, revealed that this man may have had sexual relations with adults and minors over 15 years of age whom he met in the context of the assistance he provided to migrants”.
“To the extent that these elements are too imprecise and inconsistent”, prosecutors said they had “drafted an international criminal assistance request to Morocco to obtain more information”.
The Archbishop of Rabat said in a press release on November 4 that he had launched an investigation in his diocese. The prelate admitted in July 2024 that he had been alerted to Father Antoine’s behavior “in ministering to young migrants”, which raised concerns of “abuse of vulnerable people”.
The Diocese of Saint-Étienne clarified to AFP on Thursday that Father Exelmans, “who has hosted since September 2024 in the Jesuit community, is prohibited from conducting services”.
