French justice minister orders review of 70,000 child-victim cases after murder of 11-year-old Lyhanna

In the French judicial system, prosecutors are placed directly under the authority of the Chancellerie, the Ministry of Justice. Darmanin, who holds the title of garde des Sceaux, used that authority on Sunday to publicly warn that he had 'le droit de proposer des sanctions' against prosecutors if warranted. Speaking on LCI, he added: 'Et si cela mérite la révocation, je proposerai la révocation.'

A suspect with a history

The case at the center of the political storm is the killing of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl whose body was discovered in the southwestern commune of Fleurance. According to statements by the minister, a complaint for rape had been filed in August 2024 by the mother of a 10-year-old child against Jérôme B., whom authorities describe as the principal suspect in Lyhanna's murder. At the time the complaint was filed, Jérôme B. was already implicated in other cases of assaults on minors, the facts state.

Nine months after that complaint was filed, the suspect had still not been heard by authorities, Darmanin acknowledged. The minister said in remarks carried by French media: 'Ein Psychologe hat erklärt, dass man dem Mädchen glauben kann - und neun Monate später hatte man den Verdächtigen noch immer nicht festgenommen und verhört.' He added that the prior abuse complaints had been 'zu den Akten gelegt beziehungsweise über Monate hinweg nicht bearbeitet worden.'

The Lyhanna case involves failures by the prosecutor's offices of Toulouse and Auch, according to the facts. At the time of an April 2025 alert by Gers deputy David Taupiac during a government questions session, the position of magistrate in charge of child protection was among the vacancies at the Auch court, the facts state. Taupiac had raised the difficulties of the Auch tribunal, but the warning appears to have produced no visible change before the tragedy.

The Auch warning that went unheeded

On Sunday, around 6,000 people took part in a silent march in Fleurance in memory of Lyhanna, according to multiple sources. Participants wore white T-shirts and held a banner reading 'Nie wieder! Wir lieben dich, wir vermissen dich,' the Tagesspiegel reported. The scale of the public response has put additional pressure on the government to act decisively.

At a meeting with prosecutors on Monday, Darmanin framed the failures as a problem of prioritization rather than funding. He stated: 'Il ne nous a manqué ni de moyens, ni de lois, il nous a manqué de prioriser des viols sur les mineurs.' He also said: 'l'argument des moyens n'est pas un bon argument,' insisting that the resources argument 'is not a good argument' to explain the dysfunction. The minister said he had listed two priorities upon his arrival at the Chancellerie: the fight against drug trafficking and criminal organizations, and violence against persons, including acts committed against children.

President Emmanuel Macron, on a trip to Montenegro, backed Darmanin's framing, dismissing the argument of insufficient resources in justice, the facts state. Their joint position has put the government on a collision course with magistrates' unions and with judicial officials who say the real problem is chronic underfunding and staffing shortages.

Darmanin's diagnosis: prioritization, not money

The Union syndicale des magistrats (USM) hit back hard, accusing the executive of seeking scapegoats. The USM denounced 'la volonté de l'exécutif de désigner des coupables idéaux au sein des parquets pour s'exonérer de ses propres responsabilités,' and asked: 'Wer ist denn für das System verantwortlich, wenn nicht Sie?' The union also cited an average of three prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants in France, a ratio it describes as part of the structural problem.

The Conférence nationale des procureurs généraux and the Conférence nationale des procureurs de la République issued their own communiqué, stating that prosecutors depend on the investigative capacity of police and gendarmerie services, which face 'stocks de dossiers et à des délais de traitement alarmants.' They added: 'dans l'attente des conclusions des inspections, d'éventuelles responsabilités ne peuvent être mentionnées et encore moins de prochaines sanctions.' The two prosecutor conferences insisted no responsibilities or sanctions could be mentioned before the conclusions of inspections now underway.

A confrontation with the magistrates

Magistrates of the Bobigny tribunal reacted by calling the minister's framing 'hypocrisy,' pointing out that the Ministry of Justice published 64 circulars and dispatches in 2025 and 53 in 2026, effectively making every current event a new priority without allocating resources. Their pushback highlights the tension between the Chancellerie's policy directives and the operational capacity of local courts.

The case has revived scrutiny of France's justice budget. According to 2024 calculations by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), France is among the EU countries that invest the least in justice, with 77 euros per inhabitant. CEPEJ 2024 figures cited in the article compare per-capita justice spending: 96 euros in Spain, 100 euros in Italy, 102 euros in Belgium, and 136 euros in Germany. At the same time, the facts state that the budget of the French Ministry of Justice has increased by 48.5% over seven years under Emmanuel Macron, from 6.8 billion euros to 10.1 billion euros in 2024.

A budget debate and the European comparison

The 2026 finance bill adds 1,600 full-time positions, but more than half concern the prison administration rather than judicial staff, the facts state. Jérôme Pauzat, first vice-president of the Nancy court of appeal and co-president of the association A.M.O.U.R. de la justice, stated that a workload evaluation report for magistrates has been awaited for fifteen years, since the tenure of Éric Dupond-Moretti as garde des Sceaux. Pauzat said the report's preliminary conclusions would objectively show that France needs 'deux à trois fois plus de magistrats.'

Sandrine Rousseau, a deputy and co-rapporteur at the Assemblée nationale on the Joël Le Scouarnec case, called on Sud Radio for 'une révolution des moyens' in the justice system. The Le Scouarnec case, in which a surgeon was found guilty of rape and sexual assault on nearly 300 victims, has become a reference point in the broader debate about institutional failures to act on abuse complaints.

The political backlash has been amplified by the realization that Jérôme B. had been the subject of earlier complaints. According to the German-language Tagesspiegel article, the suspect had been reported for sexual offences before the killing, and the murder 'bestürzt ganz Frankreich – bis in die Staatsspitze.' The article, written by Andrea Nüsse, alleges that 'Justiz und Polizei zu langsam' reagierten and that 'Anzeigen ignoriert' wurden. The murder of Lyhanna 'könnte womöglich verhindert werden können, wenn die Behörden effizienter gearbeitet hätten.'

A system under scrutiny

The interior ministry's own data underline the scale of the broader phenomenon. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the number of minor victims of sexual offences recorded by law enforcement rose by 156% between 2016 and 2025. The rise in recorded cases sits alongside a judicial system that practitioners and unions say is struggling to keep up with even a fraction of incoming complaints.

Darmanin, who described 'dysfonctionnements' and non-respect of circulars to explain the Lyhanna case, has said he will not go on holiday and that 'kein einziger hoher Richter wird in den Urlaub fahren' until he has met 'jeden einzelnen Staatsanwalt' to take stock. The minister also spoke of 'erheblichen und inakzeptablen Störungen' in the handling of criminal complaints against the suspect, and of 'extrem schweren Versäumnissen,' saying: 'Das zeige eindeutig, dass unser Justizsystem nicht funktioniert.'

The minister's warning was explicit. In remarks to LCI he said: 'Gibt es noch weitere Fälle wie den von Lyhanna?' The question has hung over the policy review ever since. With around 70,000 child-victim cases set to be re-examined, the government's audit is likely to determine whether the Lyhanna affair is treated as an isolated failure or as evidence of a wider, systemic breakdown in the handling of complaints involving minors.