Braun-Pivet dismisses punitive proposals over Lyhanna case, urges comprehensive approach

A tragic case sparks debate

The Lyhanna case, involving the death of an 11-year-old girl, has reignited France's debate on penalties for child abusers. It emerged that the main suspect, Jérôme B., a 41-year-old father, had multiple prior accusations of sexual abuse against children but no protective measures had been taken. Public outrage pushed government and opposition figures to propose tougher measures.

Braun-Pivet’s rebuttal

In a Sunday appearance on France Inter's "Questions politiques," National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet dismissed several punitive proposals as misguided.

“You can see that real life imprisonment, imprescriptibility or the return of the death penalty will not protect our children today.”

She said that those seeking to toughen criminal policy again have not understood the situation, advocating instead for a broader approach.

Proposals on the table

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suggested increasing sentences for serial child rapists to life instead of 20 years, possibly via the child protection bill due in July. Minister Aurore Bergé wants to make sexual violence against minors imprescriptible. Former PM Gabriel Attal and Édouard Philippe proposed abolishing the sentence enforcement judge, while LR chief Bruno Retailleau floated chemical castration. Braun-Pivet pushed back on all, warning against distorting the bill and sacrificing children in social care for penal policy add-ons.

“Let us be careful not to once again sacrifice children placed in child welfare, who so desperately need us to take care of them, for penal policy measures that have no place in this bill.”

Prevention over punishment

“When we want to toughen criminal policy again, we have not understood the situation.”

She called for focusing on health care, sex education, combating rape culture, and better listening to children. She also expressed openness to letting municipal police consult the sex offender registry, though not ordinary citizens. Braun-Pivet, who in 2022 called for a "MeToo of childhood," regretted not having shouted louder earlier. She labelled chemical castration "a bad answer" and remained "very reserved, even opposed" to imprescriptibility, citing the difficulty of judging cases decades later when evidence has vanished.