Judge Re‑Indicts Suspect in Lyhanna Case for Murder and Rape

Overview

• Jérôme Barella, who was heard by a juge d'instruction on Wednesday, was placed under a new indictment for murder and rape of a minor and remains in pretrial detention at Mont‑de‑Marsan.
• An autopsy reported on June 24 established that Lyhanna had been raped but did not determine the cause of her death with certainty.
• Two inspection reports from the Inspection générale de la Justice found concrete failures in earlier handling of complaints, citing long delays, a lack of resources, use of a psychologue not on the official expert list, and a social‑services email that was routed to spam and never read.
• The Justice Ministry ordered an urgent re‑examination of complaints about sexual violence on minors, with courts reporting more than 88,000 procedures reviewed, about 970 priority dossiers identified and roughly 675 people detained since early June.
• The case has sparked nationwide protests, led to hundreds of new investigations and prosecutions, and forced ongoing inspections that could prompt changes in how police, prosecutors and child protection services record and follow up reports.