PRIEST CHARGED WITH MURDER

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 14

PRIEST CHARGED WITH MURDER

Death Of Mother And Infant

fN.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) NANCY (France), Jan. 19.

The parish priest of the little village of Uruffe will face trial m Nancy on Friday for the murder of a 19-year-old parishioner. Regine Fays, and her baby, of which he was alleged to be the father.

In Uruffe churchyard, a tombstone reads: “Here lies Regine Fays, killed on December 3, 1956, by the cure of the parish, G.D. at the age of 19 years.” The girl’s mother has refused requests to remove it. The prosecution alleges that Guy Desnoyers, aged 37, the cure, arranged a rendezvous with Regine near the village, then shot her and. after performing a crude operation, killed her baby. Thet prosecution alleges that Desnoyers has confessed and has said that, at their last meeting, he asked Regine, whose baby was due to be born, for forgiveness and offered absolution.

Her reply was to ask: “Why should I need absolution,” and to walk away. The girl was found later, shot dead through the neck. The baby girl lay in a ditch with her, stabbed through the heart and with its face disfigured. Doctors decided the baby was alive when stabbed.

Regine had kept silent about who was the father of her baby and had refused to abandon it. Her parents had proposed to bring it up in the village where Desnoyers would have been asked to perform the christening. The day before the crime, the priest denounced from his pulpit the “calumnies and scandal” in the village. Local gossip nad connected him with an illegitimate baby born to another young parishioner who had kept silent on who was the father.