Several thousand they marched in silence over the weekend in France to commemorate fell victim to murder About 11-year-old Lyhanna. The smiling girl looked back from the banners and T-shirts of the marchers. Her case moved the whole of France, for days tens of thousands were worried about whether the girl who disappeared at the end of May would be found. The sixth grader’s body was finally found last week.
The authorities had already arrested the possible perpetrator. However, in this case, the French are exceptionally not very happy about the quick detective work, because
according to many, the tragedy could have been prevented if the authorities had done their work faster.
It turned out that the alleged perpetrator had been reported to the authorities several times in recent years on suspicion of pedophilia, but somehow he had always escaped prosecution. French President Emmanuel Macron admitted that an unacceptable mistake had been made, and the justice minister promised that no one would go on holiday until similar cases were investigated.
He knew the man who kidnapped him well
Lyhanna Rameau Bernard disappeared on May 29 in the small town of Fleurance. He finished school around 3pm that Friday and walked home, but never arrived. From the beginning, it was impossible that the child had run away on purpose. His family background was harmonious, but he was teased at school, so the investigating gendarmerie seized his tablet in case they found anything on it.
However, the witnesses immediately revealed more important details: five minutes after Lyhanna left, she was seen getting into a man’s car not far from the school. Security camera footage also showed that the girl was traveling with the man in a car.
At this point, the question arises as to why Lyhanna could get into a car so unsuspectingly. The thing is, he knew the driver well. The daughter of 41-year-old Jérôme Barella was in the same class as Lyhanna, and the two children were fine. In September 2025, he was officially invited to the Barella house for a pajama party. Lyhanna then later he told his parentsthat Barella tickled him, as a father would with his little girl. Lyhanna’s mother disapproved of this and forbade her to have contact with him again. However, the girl may still have trusted the man, or she may have forgotten the prohibition and therefore voluntarily got into the car.
Barella was arrested and questioned within two days of his disappearance. At first, he told the police that he had not even seen the girl that day. Then changed it his story and said that he only took the child to the swimming pool one kilometer away by car, but the authorities also found this suspicious. After the disappearance, the gendarmerie immediately searched for the child in the vicinity of the swimming pool, but they were unable to find him. They searched the area for Lyhanna with dogs, a thermal camera helicopter and divers, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Barella remained in custody and denied involvement in the disappearance. Charges were brought against him on suspicion of kidnapping and detention, but he did not testify.
Pascal Gachié, one of Barella’s former colleagues, gave the gendarmes a tip about where he thought they should look for the girl. Gachie was questioned about where they worked together with Barella, but at first he did not remember the town of Puycasquier, which is about 15 kilometers from Fleurance, where the girl disappeared. The former colleague realized the evening after his interrogation that he had not spoken about a certain grain silo in Puycasquier.
The next day he called the gendarmerie and said that it might be worth checking out the abandoned place. “I know that silo well, and there are hiding places they might not even think to look into. I wasn’t 100 percent sure, it was just a hunch” – he said the man. Lyhanna’s body was also found in the grain silo last week. The cause of death is not yet public, but based on his clothes and DNA was identified the girl.
The grain silo where the girl’s body was found – Photo: Isabelle Souriment / Hans Lucas / AFP
He has had several affairs in the last 10 years
It turned out that there had been several complaints against Barella in the past, and reports were made at least three times. In 2017, at the age of 32, he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, so the girl’s parents reported him. However, according to French law, this was already a permissible act based on age, as there was consent on the part of the teenager, so the case at that time was dropped.
Then in 2021, Barella worked as a cleaner at a high school, but was fired after disciplinary proceedings against him. According to the statement, he “exhibited inappropriate behavior towards a high school girl”. Despite this according to French media in recent years he continued to work as a cleaner in various educational institutions. He was reported in 2022 because he might have raped a 7-year-old child, but based on the report of the forensic doctors and the testimonies, they could not press charges. About that now he said the territorially competent prosecutor’s office, so that they can reopen the file.
In August 2025, Barella was reported again, on the suspicion that he may have sexually abused a minor for six months. The girl concerned was also a friend of one of Barella’s children. An investigation was launched in this case, but it did not bring any real progress the famously slow French justice system. The delay was further aggravated by the fact that the file was transferred to another district, and in a year the suspect Barella was not even questioned. The girl’s mother called the police every week to see if there was any progress.
“After a while, they said on the phone: ‘If you don’t stop calling us, we will report you for harassment'”
– he said the woman. A source close to the case a To Le Parisien he talked about how Barella knew all along that he was being investigated and harassed the parents to withdraw the report. He allegedly begged and claimed he loved their daughter.
After Lyhanna’s disappearance and Barella’s arrest, two new cases arose. Other children also attended the ominous pajama party that Lyhanna’s parents were upset about. One of the girls, Rosa, was conceived by Barella that evening, but the child told one of her teachers about it only half a year later, in March 2026. The teacher notified the child’s parents. After Lyhanna disappeared, so did Rosa’s father filed a complaint.
In the other case, it is also about an 11-year-old girl who was previously sexually assaulted. His mother already in 2023 filed a complaintbut at the time they did not know who the perpetrator might have been. Since then, the investigation against an unknown perpetrator has been ongoing, but it has stalled. After Lyhanna’s disappearance, the child’s mother noticed Barella in the news and realized that they lived in the same neighborhood. She showed the man’s photo to her child, who recognized his look. The suspicion that Barella could have been the perpetrator in this case also seems well-founded.
French National Police divers search a lake during a search operation for Lyhanna in Fleurance on June 2, 2026 – Photo: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP
Based on all this, according to the French newspapers, Barella may be a serial pedophile criminal, and the media also labeled him a sexual predator. According to information from BFMTV his name appeared in a total of nine cases. According to the French RTL Barella used his own daughters to connect with his victims. But the man was also noticed in the sports club where he went went to martial arts. According to one of the workers of the association, very soon noticedthat Barella is constantly looking for the children’s company, so he was never left with them unsupervised.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said six reports had been filed against Jérôme Barella so far, but he said this was not final.
“Based on the information received from the gendarmerie, I understand that additional reports may be received in the next hours or days” – he said on Monday. In a similar development, Barella’s brother was also placed in pretrial detention after his ex-partner reported. According to the woman, he may have sexually abused a minor between 2007 and 2017, but he also raped her and threatened her with death.
They promise investigations
Lyhanna’s disappearance kept the French in a frenzy for days, and it only increased their indignation when it was revealed that the possible perpetrator may actually be responsible for several such cases. More than six thousand people showed up at the commemoration organized for the girl. With a sign reading “We will never forget” in hand, the procession in white marched to the school in Fleurance, led by the victim’s parents, who they thanked him with emotionthat so many people thought about their child.
Women’s and children’s rights activists organized new demonstrations for Monday. At least 160 movements were announced in front of courthouses across the country. Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, said that in France, 94 percent of complaints about sexual harassment or rape are rejected. “We don’t need social change, but political change. Society has already changed. People have opened their eyes. (…) But we are facing a political system that rejects this and thus protects the attackers” – he said.
Politics did not remain silent this time. Macron said there was an “unacceptable error in the legal system”. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin apologized. He acknowledged itthat “something has gone very wrong” and stated that problems should not be swept under the rug. He said that 70,000 reports of sexual abuse of minors are awaiting evaluation at the police. The minister directed that all such complaints be reviewed in every district within five weeks.
“I’m not going on vacation, and no senior judge is going on vacation, until I meet with the prosecutors one by one to review the situation in each appellate court”
– he said. He also called the country’s chief prosecutors together on Monday to issue the tasks. The Minister of the Interior as well he saidthat Lyhanna’s case is a “failure”, a tragedy that could have been prevented. He promised that they would find out why the previous reports were blocked.
French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin at a working meeting on the case with French attorneys general on June 8, 2026 – Photo: Behrouz Mehri / AFP
Meanwhile on the case they spoke also the politicians preparing for next year’s presidential election. Far-right Jordan Bardella, centrist Édouard Philippe and Green Party Marine Tondelier spoke about the inability of the judiciary to do its job normally and to protect children or women from sexual abuse.
On Monday, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly – i.e. the Speaker – he talked about in parliament that Lyhanna’s murder had upset France and that it should not become a matter of party politics. He called on the government to put a draft law on the fight against sexual violence on the agenda. In his opinion, this would be a non-partisan bill. Both Nuñez and Darmanin are on the bill review committee of the French Senate will call you in for an interview in the coming days.
