Fury in France after child murder suspect's criminal record released

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Fury in France after child murder suspect's criminal record released28 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleHugh SchofieldParisGetty ImagesA girl's body was found near Puycasquier following a massive searchThere is fury in France over the murder of an 11 year-old girl after it emerged the principal suspect was identified several times in the past as a potential child molester. Lyhanna disappeared after school a week ago in the Gers area of south-west France. A body, presumed to be hers, was found on farmland near the town of Fleurance on Thursday.

A 41 year-old man named as Jérome B. has been in custody since Monday. He is the father of a friend of Lyhanna, and two witnesses said they saw the girl in his car on the afternoon of her disappearance.

The Details

Amid the shock and grief, the affair took a political turn as details of Jérome B. 's police record were released by officials. He had been named in four separate cases involving young girls in recent years.

Two were closed for lack of evidence, and in a third he was dismissed from his job as a maintenance worker at a secondary school for "inappropriate behaviour" towards a teenager. But the fourth affair has lit a fuse leading to the highest reaches of the justice system. According to the state prosecutor in the town of Auch, Jérome B.

was the object of a complaint last August from the mother of 10 year-old Rosa, who said she had been raped by him on several occasions. But shockingly, even though medical examination substantiated Rosa's claims, not once in the nine months since her family went to police had Jérome B. been questioned by investigators.

What Experts Say

The slowness of the French justice system is legendary. In this case the delays were aggravated by the case having to be transferred from one jurisdiction to another. But the French are appalled that none of the several alarm signals about Jérome B.

were heeded by the authorities, who seemed more concerned about following procedure than putting him out of capacity to do harm. With presidential elections less than a year away, the affair has been seized on by likely candidates as evidence of laxity, incompetence and under-investment. "The French people demand a reckoning," the president of the hard-right National Rally Jordan Bardella said on X.

"This terrible tragedy could have been avoided if the justice system were not so dysfunctional. ""Our justice system is a failure, it should be totally reformed," said Bruno Retailleau of the conservative Les Républicains. "A society that is incapable of protecting its own children is a society which will one day start turning against itself.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.