Lyhanna case: Barella targeted by corruption of a minor complaint following SMS messages to teenager
A fresh complaint for corruption of a minor targets Jérôme Barella, who is under investigation for the murder of Lyhanna. The mother and her daughter claim they were discouraged from filing a complaint by the gendarmes in Auch.
Fresh complaint against Barella: a teenager says she received dozens of SMS messages from the accused
A complaint for corruption of a minor was filed on Thursday 3 September against Jérôme Barella, the main suspect in the murder of young Lyhanna, with the public prosecutor's office in Auch (Gers). According to franceinfo.fr, which obtained confirmation from lawyer Myriam Guedj Benayoun, the complaint is filed in the name of Marie and her daughter Lise, 15 years old, who claims to have received several dozen messages from this 41-year-old man between February and summer 2025.
The information had been revealed initially by Mediapart.
Insistent SMS messages sent to a 13-year-old girl
Lise is said to have known Jérôme Barella at her taekwondo club. She was 13 years old at the time of the events in question. According to the exchanges consulted by Mediapart — and already partially disclosed in June by BFMTV — the man in his forties repeatedly asked her for a photo, invited her to the swimming pool or to a "pyjama party" at his home, in the company of his daughter.
When the young girl spaced out her replies, he became insistent. "Are you giving us the silent treatment or has something happened?" he is said to have written to her, before adding: "It feels like you're avoiding us or even running away for a while. (...) Every time we suggest meeting up, you can never make it." Lise told investigators that she subsequently blocked Barella.
A hearing in July, but without follow-up
The teenager and her mother had reported themselves to investigators after Lyhanna's death. Called in for a hearing on 1 July at the gendarmerie in Auch, they presented the disputed SMS messages at that time. On that date, Jérôme Barella was already in provisional detention, quickly identified as the main suspect in the disappearance of the little girl.
A report from the Inspection générale de la justice and the Inspection générale de la gendarmerie, pointing out serious judicial malfunctions in the follow-up on the man in his forties, had moreover just been made public.
"They should have handled this matter with delicacy"
Despite this context, Marie claims that the gendarmes discouraged them from filing a complaint at that hearing. "I thought they were going to take things very seriously. But no, ultimately..." she told Mediapart. Her lawyer, Myriam Guedj Benayoun, denounces a failure: "They should have handled this matter with delicacy given the problems that led to the death of a little girl."
The press office of the national gendarmerie, contacted by franceinfo.fr, confirmed that the hearing on 1 July did indeed take place, without wishing to provide further details, referring the question to the public prosecutor's office in Auch. The latter had not responded to the editorial team's requests at the time of publication.
A legal case that is mounting up for Barella
Jérôme Barella is already under investigation for the rape and murder of Lyhanna, a little girl whose disappearance in the Gers had aroused considerable emotion at the national level. This fresh complaint for corruption of a minor further compounds his legal situation.
The case also raises persistent questions about the institutional handling of the file: the inspection report had highlighted several failings in the follow-up on this man before the alleged acts, and the public prosecutor in Auch, on the front line during the proceedings, has since left office.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)