Court clears French cardinal of shielding alleged paedophile priest Appeals judges overturn a French cardinal's conviction for failing to report alleged sex abuse by a priest, in a case that rocked the French Catholic Church. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, had been given a six-month suspended jail sentence last March for not reporting that a priest in his diocese had allegedly abused dozens of boy scouts in the 1980s and 1990s. He was found guilty of twice failing to report Bernard Preynat to the police, first in 2010 when the priest admitted to the cardinal that he had a history of abuse, and again in 2014, when one of Preynat's alleged victims told Barbarin about abuse he suffered. Preynat has been defrocked and is awaiting a ruling on March 16 in his trial on sex abuse charges. SOUNDBITES