Who is Jérôme Barella, suspect in Lyhanna's death in Fleurance?
Held in custody for the abduction of young Lyhanna in the Gers, Jérôme Barella was the subject of several complaints for sexual violence against minors.
Portrait of a suspect with overlooked antecedents
Held in custody for the abduction of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl who disappeared on 29 May in Fleurance in the Gers, Jérôme Barella was the subject of several complaints for sexual violence against minors, which were dismissed or never resulted in questioning, according to rtl.be.
This 41-year-old man led an apparently ordinary life in Montestruc-sur-Gers, a village of 600 inhabitants located 7 kilometres from Fleurance. He lived there with his wife and his two children, aged 7 and 11 — his daughter was a close friend of Lyhanna. A temporary worker and former general support assistant in educational establishments, Barella lived in a quiet street in a half-timbered house, whose front door is now sealed.
A neighbourhood in shock
Residents questioned by the AFP wished to remain anonymous. Many claimed to know him only by sight and described him as a "geek". Pierre (name changed), met in a tobacco shop, said he himself had entrusted his son to the suspect to pick him up from the combat sports club of which Barella was a member in Fleurance. "With his children, you end up thinking they were bait," confides this father of family, whose child is the same age as Lyhanna. According to him, he was "always very close to the children, even at sport".
A professional history marked by disciplinary dismissal
Born in 1985, Jérôme Barella attended Cadours secondary school in Haute-Garonne in the late 1990s, before attending Pardailhan vocational secondary school in Auch. More recently, he worked for an agency providing temporary workers in Auch, which had directed him towards an agricultural cooperative. One of the disused sites of this cooperative is precisely the place where Lyhanna's body was discovered on Thursday.
Previously, he had worked as a general support assistant in several educational establishments. Five years ago, he had been dismissed from Lectoure secondary school in the Gers "following a disciplinary procedure after the reporting of inappropriate behaviour towards a secondary school student", according to the Occitanie region. His father and his two brothers operate an agricultural farm in the same sector.
The pyjama party and parents' doubts
On 29 May, Barella participated in the early evening in the initial searches organised in Fleurance to find Lyhanna, before being apprehended the next day by the gendarmes. Investigators suspect him of abducting the girl on the same day, around 3 p.m. A camera had filmed her getting into his vehicle. Facing investigators, Barella denies any involvement in the child's death.
Before the investigating judge of the Agen prosecutor's office, the suspect refused to answer a single question during his first interrogation. Following this, he was charged with abduction and unlawful imprisonment.
According to Lyhanna's father, met by an AFP journalist at the start of the investigation, the two girls were friends and schooled in the same secondary school. The family's lawyer stated on BFMTV that Lyhanna's parents had ended "all contact" with the suspect after having "some doubts" about his conduct at a "pyjama party" organised at his home.
Four complaints and a national controversy
The revelation of criminal antecedents prior to Lyhanna's disappearance triggered heated controversy in France over the failings of the judicial system. Barella is now the subject of four complaints and two reports. In connection with a complaint filed in 2025 for rape, he knew that proceedings were underway against him. According to a source close to the case, he had harassed the parents of the presumed victim and had begged them to withdraw their complaint, telling them that he was "very attached" to their daughter.
The Agen prosecutor, in charge of the investigation, confirmed on Friday that the body found in Puycasquier, roughly fifteen kilometres from Fleurance, is indeed that of Lyhanna. The cause of death has not yet been established.
Source: Google News BE FR