Fake priest in XDDL case: M6 caught out live, bishop refers matter to Arcom
An impostor posing as "Father Marc" deceived the M6 programme Appel à témoins, claiming to have received Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès' confession. The bishop of Carcassonne denies this and announces he will refer the matter to Arcom.
XDDL case: fake priest appears live on M6 and forces channel to apologise
A man presenting himself under the name "Father Marc" managed to speak live on M6 during the programme Appel à témoins on Tuesday 2 June, claiming to have received the confession of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. According to lindependant.fr, the impostor subsequently claimed backstage to be XDDL himself and to want to surrender.
The programme, presented by Julien Courbet, was celebrating its fifth anniversary and had made the Dupont de Ligonnès case the highlight of its evening. On the agenda: new witnesses presented as "exclusives", aged portraits generated by artificial intelligence and the promise of "serious leads".
An elaborate account, absent verification
The fake priest said he was a member of the Community of the Lamb, in Plavilla, in the Aude, and attached to the diocese of Narbonne. He claimed to have collected the confession of "XDDL" in 2022 — eleven years after the suspect's disappearance — and claimed to possess a photograph of the fugitive, with his bishop's authorisation to lift the seal of confession.
No photograph was presented on set or in the control room. And for good reason: "There is no Father Marc in this religious community. There is indeed a congregation of brothers and sisters in this village in the Aude, but there is no priest by that name," declared on Wednesday 3 June Mgr Bruno Valentin, bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne, thus confirming the imposture.
Backstage, escalation ignored
According to Le Figaro, the fake priest himself acknowledged his lie backstage before changing his mind — and going further still. "He said he was Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès himself and that he wanted to surrender," confided a person present on the set. M6, when asked about this, refused to confirm or deny these remarks.
Elementary verification would nevertheless have been enough to expose the deception, even during the live broadcast. The channel did not carry out such checks.
Courbet takes responsibility, M6 apologises, bishop refers to Arcom
On Wednesday morning, Julien Courbet took responsibility for the incident on RTL: "It's my job, I'm paid for it. Go ahead, blame me." The M6 group presented its apologies "without reservation" to Mgr Bruno Valentin.
These apologies were not sufficient to close the matter. The bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne announced he would refer the matter to Arcom, the French audiovisual regulator. The diocese's lawyer is also considering filing a complaint.
Nantes public prosecutor opens investigation
In parallel, the Nantes public prosecutor announced that investigators would examine the Epsilon account, according to Ouest-France — a lead raised in the context of the Dupont de Ligonnès case, whose main suspect has remained missing since 2011, following the discovery of the bodies of his wife and four children at their home in Nantes.
Source: Google News LU FR