How and why did the cruelest of tragedies, that of the death of a child, immediately become a “business”? How did we move from the register of the most intimate pain to this word “business” which plunges us into an administrative and political lexicon? The murder of little Lyhanna is not a news item. In a few days, the tragedy became a “state affair” because it was the crisis in our judicial system, then the cynicism and hypocrisy of the executive which were highlighted. Certainly, there is no shortage of crimes or accidents that could have been avoided in our gazettes. But this time it took an incredible succession of what we hastened to describe as shortcomings, oversights or negligence for this “impossible” crime to finally take place. Far too much for the bankruptcy to be only individual.
On the same subject: File: News items, political news?
The most terrible example is the most recent. Less than a year ago, in August 2025, the suspect, Jérôme B., was accused of raping a 10-year-old child. The clinical examinations on the little victim left no room for doubt or any escape. Neither the presumption of innocence nor the memory of the Outreau affair, when adults had been unjustly accused, could justify letting this listed serial criminal go free. So why? We are told about the slowness of the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office which took two months to transmit the file to the Auch public prosecutor’s office via a territorial brigade devoid of know-how and resources. Worse: we are told that, finally taking charge of the case last January, a magistrate from the Gers prefecture did order Jérôme B. to be taken into custody, but that this was never carried out.
This affair will not only have highlighted the crisis in the judicial system. It will also have shown the cynicism of politicians.
The first reflex is naturally to overwhelm the magistrates and the gendarmes. What Gérald Darmanin did not fail to do on TF1. But it is here that we must cite figures which obviously raise the question of means. Annually, it is estimated that 160,000 children are victims of sexual assault and rape; in ten years, the number of complaints has increased by 156%. And the last figure was given by Gerald Darmanin himself: 70,000 cases are still pending in all jurisdictions in the country. As for the Auch prosecutor, named by name by the minister, she has continued to alert her hierarchy since 2023: with her ten magistrates, she has 10,000 cases to process. Rejoinder from Darmanin: “This court does not particularly lack resources.” Note the “particularly”. Way to recognize that the shortage is everywhere. And now, hastily bringing together all the attorneys general on Monday at the chancellery, the minister demands that they process the 70,000 pending files before mid-July. Otherwise, no vacation, he threatened.
On the same subject: «La matière criminelle n’est pas un stock à  résorb »
This affair will not only have highlighted the crisis in the judicial system. It will also have shown the cynicism of politicians. Invoking “his” circulars of January 2025 and May 2026 which ordered magistrates to “prioritize complaints from women who are in danger and children”, Darmanin deplored that they had not « manifestement pas été suivies ». We can see in hindsight the very political function of these circulars, and of all this inflation of “priorities”. For each drug trafficking crime, for each road accident under cocaine or nitrous oxide, a circular and a priority. Each time it is a large ministerial umbrella that is deployed. Of course, there was the increase in justice appropriations, from 8 to nearly 13 billion in ten years. But this only repaired part of the damage caused under the Sarkozy era, without bringing France back to the level of its European neighbors. And what do these billions mean for the Auch prosecutor if she doesn’t see the first cent of them.
There are now fears that the right will exploit the situation to attack judges and the rule of law. Bruno Retailleau did not wait.
In fact, in this affair, the reflex was to protect the political level. The instruction came from Emmanuel Macron who, while traveling in Montenegro, hastened to assert with the peremptory tone that we know him to have, that he did not want “Not hearing about lack of resources”. My point is not to silence individual failures. What can we say about this gendarme who claimed to « harcelé » by the mother of a little girl who was a victim of rape? But it’s a whole policy, made up of dodging techniques and demagoguery that appeared during these days. It is an understatement to say that the executive did not live up to the tragedy. There are now fears that the right will exploit the situation to attack judges and the rule of law. Bruno Retailleau did not wait.
