This Sunday, to pay tribute to Lyhanna11 ans, found dead Thursday, round 6,000 folks had been current throughout a white march within the rural commune of simply over 6,000 inhabitants of Fleurance within the Gers. This gathering came about towards a backdrop of controversy in regards to the judicial therapy of complaints of rape of minors concentrating on the principal suspect. The white march set off with Lyhanna’s dad and mom and brother on the head of a really dense procession, critical faces, behind a banner on which was written: “By no means once more!” We love you. We miss you “.
“Our complete little world has collapsed,” the woman’s household mentioned on Sunday. “Lyhanna have to be so moved to see all these folks gathered for her from up there,” mentioned an aunt of the little woman from a platform on which the kid’s dad and mom and the mayor of the town had been standing.
The contributors, wearing white, some holding white flowers of their fingers, gathered in entrance of the Fleurance leisure middle, the place to begin of the white march. The march was secured by a pressure of 150 gendarmes, introduced Lieutenant-Colonel Christophe Romand.
“Demise penalty for pedos”
Céline Camus, 41, wearing white, with a rose in her hand, could be very moved: “I really feel involved, I’ve two youngsters, a 12-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. It might have occurred to my household, to my son, my daughter.” Herself a sufferer of sexual violence for ten years, Céline Camus encourages little women to precise themselves, “they should have the braveness to discuss it for themselves”.
Manola Martin, retiree, wears a t-shirt with Lyhanna’s portrait. She traveled 50 kilometers to come back and assist the household. She was additionally a sufferer of rape when she was 17. She is there for her “daughters and granddaughters”, “sadly justice does nothing for these folks”.
In Montestruc-sur-Gers, the place the principle suspect resides, the village signal was lined with a white sheet on which was tagged “PDM (loss of life penalty) for paedos”, famous an AFP photographer on Sunday.
Fleurance, an “indignant metropolis”
Fleurance is “an indignant metropolis” in “an indignant nation”, mentioned the mayor of the city, Grégory Bobbat. “The fact is that Lyhanna is the ultimate act in a tragedy that has been taking part in out for much too lengthy. That of denying the phrases of kids,” mentioned the councilor, denouncing “a failure in our most essential mission as elected officers, as a nation.”
“For too lengthy, we have now tolerated a system which stifles as a substitute of listening to, which dissuades as a substitute of encouraging, by asking youngsters to talk as adults, in grownup locations, earlier than being adults,” mentioned Grégory Bobbato, deploring a “societal failure”.
“What number of extra clean marches, what number of extra minutes of silence will we have now to expertise? By no means once more ought to youngster victims discover themselves with an accumulation of complaints with out follow-up, on account of lack of clear proof. By no means once more ought to youngsters be prey to predators who roam with impunity,” mentioned the mayor of Fleurance.
4 complaints of rape of minors, two reviews… and a suspect by no means heard
4 complaints for rape of minors and two reviews, together with one for “inappropriate habits” in direction of a highschool pupil, goal the principle suspect, Jérôme B., 41, indicted on Monday for kidnapping and sequestration earlier than being incarcerated. Regardless of suspicions of kid abuse, he had by no means been interviewed earlier than by investigators. In accordance with the Auch public prosecutor, he had been the topic of complaints for rape of a minor in 2022 and 2025. The primary was dismissed. An investigation is underway for the second.
This second grievance arouses anger in Gers and past: filed in August 2025, the Toulouse public prosecutor’s workplace then transmitted it to the Auch public prosecutor’s workplace, the information having occurred in Montestruc-sur-Gers, the place Jérôme B lived. In accordance with the Auch prosecutor, it was solely acquired in December 2025, then transmitted to the gendarmerie in January 2026. Jérôme B. was by no means heard on this affair, a failure arousing the ire of the inhabitants of Fleurance.
An “unacceptable dysfunction”, in line with Darmanin
These dysfunctions have been identified on the highest degree of the State, which overwhelms the judicial establishment. Gérald Darmanin, “livid” on the therapy of the suspect by the courts, introduced his “apologies within the title of Justice” to Lyhanna’s household on Friday. “It’s clear that there’s a dysfunction (…) and it’s unacceptable”, declared from Montenegro President Emmanuel Macron, who doesn’t wish to “hear any argument of means on this matter”.
Our file on the Lyhanna affair
However for the Union of Magistrates (USM, majority), there stays “the impression that scapegoats are wanted and shortly. There could have been malfunctions, however solely the inspection reviews can say that,” indicated its deputy secretary basic, Aurélien Martini. He factors out, to AFP, the proliferation of circulars “with out asking the query of whether or not the companies have the capability to combine them”.
