Lyhanna case: child accuses main suspect of repeated sexual assaults
According to an inspection report submitted to the Prime Minister, a young girl claims to have been abused multiple times by Jérôme Barella, who is also implicated in the death of schoolgirl Lyhanna.
Lyhanna case: child accuses main suspect of repeated sexual assaults
A young girl, whose identity has been changed to the pseudonym Rosa, claims to have been raped on numerous occasions by Jérôme Barella. This man in his forties is the prime suspect in the investigation into the death of Lyhanna, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl whose body was discovered on 4 June in the Gers. These revelations emerge from the preliminary report of an inspection mission unveiled on Monday 22 June, as reported by franceinfo.
The child's mother, born in 2014, brought the matter before the courts as early as August 2025. On the evening of 18 August, she took her daughter to the accident and emergency department of Purpan Hospital in Toulouse, following the child's disclosures about touching committed by her mother's partner. The latter had alerted the police, who attended the hospital at around 21:00.
The interrogation of the young victim, recorded on 27 August, revealed that the individual in question was the father of one of the child's classmates. The military personnel quickly established that this same man was already the subject of an investigation for acts of a similar nature in May 2024. The commander of the Plaisance-du-Touch brigade had deemed this case to require urgent handling.
However, this unit did not have geographical jurisdiction — the incidents having occurred in the Gers — so it transferred the case to the public prosecutor's office in Auch. It was at this point that serious failings occurred. A misdirection caused a delay of nearly one and a half months in the handling of the proceedings. Worse still, from 23 January until June, no investigative action was taken, apart from a few telephone enquiries.
Rosa's mother, who had attempted several times to obtain updates on the investigation, made clear on 9 June that she would pursue legal action for gross negligence against the State. The joint document from the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie and the General Inspectorate of the Judiciary thus highlights multiple shortcomings on the part of both investigators and the judiciary.
Jérôme Barella, already known to police for previous offences, had not been summoned in this matter until that point. He is also the subject of other prosecutions, some of which have been dropped, which had already raised questions before the tragic disappearance of Lyhanna.
Source: France Info