Murder of Lyhanna, 11, Enrages France and Turns up Heat on Government

Protests and Public Outrage

More than 60,000 people participated in protests across France on Monday following the killing of Lyhanna, with many demanding the resignation of Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin.

The alleged killer. 41-year-old Jérome Barella. Had been reported to police in August by the mother of a 10-year-old girl, Rosa, who claimed he had sexually abused her daughter multiple times; Medical evidence confirmed the abuse, but investigators did not question Barella in the nine months following the complaint.

According to the French public, had Barella been contacted by police, he would have known he was being watched, potentially preventing Lyhanna’s death.

Circumstances of the Murder

Lyhanna’s body was discovered last Thursday at a farm near Fleurance in south-west France, approximately 10km (6 miles) from where she was last seen at the end of school six days earlier.

Barella, who is the father of a friend of Lyhanna, was taken into custody three days after her disappearance — he denied any involvement in her death but admitted to taking her in his car to a local swimming pool. When questioned by an investigating judge, he refused to answer any questions.

It has since emerged that Barella was named in several other cases of alleged sexual abuse in recent years, which should have made the Rosa case a priority but did not.

Rosa’s mother has announced through her lawyers that she is filing a lawsuit against the state and against Darmanin for their responsibilities in the affair.

Government Response and Reactions

Darmanin, a leading figure in the Renaissance party that supports President Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged that the Lyhanna case revealed “shocking and unacceptable failings in the services of the state,” but he has ruled out resignation.

He and the government are caught between an increasingly angry public and a justice system whose magistrates and prosecutors refuse to be scapegoats. The Higher Magistrature Council (CSM) stated it “deplored the discredit being thrown on thousands of magistrates” due to the affair, which was being “instrumentalised by people who have decided in advance that magistrates are the guilty parties.”

The CSM noted that magistrates, who direct police in criminal investigations in the French system, lack the financial and manpower resources to do their work correctly. However, Darmanin told a Senate committee on Tuesday that resources were not the problem in the Lyhanna affair.

“What is missing in this story is not a new law; it’s not more money; it’s not better IT. It’s the need to prioritise allegations of rape,” Darmanin said. “We had all the elements. Nine months later it is quite incomprehensible that he was never taken into custody,” he added.

The minister has instructed state prosecutors to review some 70,000 complaints of sexual abuse on minors that are still awaiting treatment. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has also pledged to toughen a law on child protection currently under review in parliament, so that serial rapists could face potential life terms in jail instead of the current maximum of 20 years.