France is in shock over the death of little Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl killed by a repeat paedophile known to the police and prosecutors, who had numerous charges pending against him .
The little girl, missing since Friday, May 29, in Fleurance, southwestern France, was found dead on Thursday evening.
With long brown hair and eyes, the girl was last seen alive in front of the middle school she attended in her hometown, a village of 6,000 inhabitants 80 kilometers from Toulouse. Her body was found on the grounds of a farm near the village of Puycasquier , about fifteen kilometers from Fleurance.
The man arrested before the body was found is Jerome Barella, 41, and the father of two children. He knew Lyhanna because she was a friend of his daughter. She had worked on the very farm where the body was found .
Subsequently, details of his criminal record, his profile as a sexual predator, and the charges against him for child rape emerged one by one. These sparked public outrage and an institutional clash between politicians and the prosecutor's office. Macron called the prosecutor's failures in the case "unacceptable," and currently denies all charges and any suggestion of sanctions for the magistrates who allegedly failed to perform their duties.
The public prosecutor of Auch, under whose authority the initial investigations were conducted, Clémence Meyer, explained that the complaints against Barella date back to 2022 to 2025: the first was dismissed, while another is still pending. However, the same prosecutor, according to BFM sources, did not mention a third complaint against Barella, also for rape, of which she was also made aware. Furthermore, according to reports from other French media, the first reports about the man date back to 2017. There are reportedly five reports and investigations for sexual assault against minors, yet he has never been arrested or prosecuted before now .
Lyhanna's family expressed "dismay" at the suggestion that the man should have been in prison or under surveillance for events that may have been underestimated. This is a they said, adding that they did not want to hear "any arguments regarding the resources available" to investigators, urging the bodies responsible for determining any responsibility to "act very quickly."
