French justice system on trial as nation rages at failure to prevent schoolgirl’s murder

The death of an 11-year-old schoolgirl in southwest France has triggered soul-searching and recrimination in a country already roiled by a string of child abuse scandals.

Lyhanna went missing after school on May 29 in her hometown of Fleurance, northwest of Toulouse. Her body was discovered a week later in a disused grain silo 15 kilometres from home.

The 41-year-old father of a classmate was arrested on evidence that he was seen with her on the afternoon she disappeared. The case sparked outrage after officials revealed he had been accused in several cases involving young girls.

The most serious was a mother's complaint in August that he raped her 10-year-old daughter several times. Despite medical evidence supporting the accusation, the suspect had still not been questioned by police by the time Lyhanna went missing nine months later.

Grief mixed with anger on Sunday as thousands of mourners took part in a silent march in Fleurance, many holding portraits of the young victim. Several women told reporters they had also been victims of sexual abuse, lamenting a society and a justice system that failed to protect them, their daughters and granddaughters.

“Today, we are an angry town, an angry region, an angry country,” said the town’s mayor, Grégory Bobbato, describing Lyhanna’s death as “the latest act in a tragedy that has been unfolding for far too long”.

The mayor said there was something deeply wrong with the way investigations were conducted, echoing complaints voiced across the country. He added: “Must we always wait for fully established evidence to be produced before finally doing something to protect our children?”

‘State failure’

President Emmanuel Macron has condemned as “unacceptable” lapses in the authorities’ handling of the case. His justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, has acknowledged a “terrible failure from the state, and of the justice system”.

Summoning all state prosecutors to Paris on Monday, Darmanin instructed them to review 70,000 ongoing allegations of violence against minors by July 14 “as an absolute priority”. He said findings from an investigation into the handling of the case would be released within two weeks.

Asked if he would resign, Darmanin said: “If any shortcomings are identified, I will take responsibility and propose disciplinary actions ranging from a reprimand to dismissal.”

The government has accused the judiciary of ignoring instructions to prioritise cases of suspected child abuse. Magistrates’ unions have countered that the government’s priorities vary according to each passing event, resulting in a flood of directives that are impossible to implement.

Opposition parties, meanwhile, have rounded on both, some on the left calling for Darmanin’s resignation while others on the right demand sanctions for magistrates. With the next presidential election just a year away, would-be candidates have rushed to take part in the blame game.

In a letter to Darmanin, himself a potential Elysée Palace candidate, a union representing French magistrates said it was “unacceptable” that they should “be held responsible and subjected to public condemnation and threats” even before the results of the administrative inquiry are known.

One prosecutor has already been subjected to death threats, accused of failing to act on serious allegations levelled at the suspect as his file bounced from one jurisdiction to another.

A lack of resources

In its letter to Darmanin, the magistrates’ union noted that France has “four times fewer prosecutors than the European average” and has seen an “exponential” rise in recent years in the number of cases involving gender-based and sexual violence, whether against minors or not.

This, the union added, has created “among plaintiffs and victims a hope for justice that the judicial system is materially incapable of fulfilling”.

While both Macron and Darmanin have pre-emptively dismissed talk of budgetary or staffing constraints as a factor in the authorities’ failure to protect Lyhanna, experts say decades of under-investment in the judiciary have left it ill-equipped to tackle cases in which speed is of the essence.

“Per capita spending on the justice system in France is among the lowest in Europe,” said Carine Durrieu Diebolt, a lawyer representing victims of sexual violence, including children.

Durrieu Diebolt is a member of the CIIVISE, an independent commission set up in 2021 to come up with proposals to fight sexual abuse of children. She points to the government’s shifting priorities as one reason the commission’s 82 recommendations are yet to be implemented.

“Drug trafficking is a national priority; terrorism is a national priority; everything is a national priority,” she said. “Sexual violence against children is ultimately just one national priority among many others, and as a result, it is no longer treated as a priority.”

Read more'Judicial system should believe victims first', activist says after body found in missing girl case

According to the CIIVISE, three out of four complaints for sexual abuse of a minor are dropped after preliminary investigations, and only 7% result in a conviction.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has repeatedly faulted France over delays in examining cases of sexual abuse and a lack of specialised training to give child victims a fair hearing.

In April last year, the Strasbourg-based court found the French judiciary guilty of “failing to protect” three girls aged under 18 who had filed complaints for rape, noting that the question of consent had been largely ignored. Ruling on a separate French case months later, the ECHR found that “failings” both in the investigative process and during trial were “likely to deter victims of sexual violence from asserting their rights in court”.

Children’s voices unheard

In remarks to the press last week, Darmanin acknowledged a widespread failure to “take the words of children seriously”.

This failure can be traced in part to a notorious paedophilia case at the start of the century, known as the Affaire Outreau, which resulted in then-president Jacques Chirac ultimately apologising to defendants who had been jailed for up to four years based on apparently unreliable testimony, including from children.

“The justice system was traumatised by the Affaire Outreau, which left many with the conviction that we needed to be more cautious about what children say,” said Choralyne Dumesnil, a lawyer at the Paris bar specialised in the protection of victims of domestic and sexual violence.

“Now we must go back to listening to the children, but doing so properly,” Dumesnil added. “There are appropriate methods to interview them, by following guidelines and training police officers and psychologists. Even a 3-year-old can be interviewed if done the right way.”

The tragic case of 11-year-old Lyhanna comes on the heels of a scandal rocking the after-school care system known as périscolaire in Paris and elsewhere in France, with investigators probing allegations of widespread child abuse by non-teaching staff. The scandal has prompted calls for more and better trained investigators to keep up with the deluge of complaints and act swiftly, with specialised child protection units already overstretched.

Read moreFrance ponders failure to protect children as school abuse scandal rocks Paris

The CIIVISE says an estimated 160,000 minors are victims of sexual abuse each year – most often by a relative, almost always by a man.

“It’s the equivalent of two to three children for each classroom – it's massive,” said Durrieu Diebolt. “We’re talking about systemic violence and systemic failings. So, it’s imperative that the accounts of victims of abuse are taken seriously.”

The context of a looming presidential campaign is both a curse and a blessing, according to Dumesnil, for whom now is the time to turn national outrage into action.

“Yes, this tragedy is being politicised, but we should seize the opportunity,” she said. “We have plenty of ideas about how things need to be done – now they need to be implemented.”

In a sign that things may be moving, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the head of the National Assembly, called on Monday for a “comprehensive”, cross-party bill on gender-based and sexual violence that had been stalled for months to be placed on parliament’s agenda.

The bill “provides solutions that cover all areas: justice, security, the home (...) sports and education”, Braun-Pivet said of the text signed by roughly 100 lawmakers, adding that the fight must be waged “on all fronts”.