French interior minister orders inquiry into handling of 2025 child rape complaint against suspect in Lyhanna disappearance

The administrative inquiry

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told the National Assembly on Wednesday 3 June that he and the justice minister had decided to open an administrative investigation into the handling of a child rape complaint against Jérôme Barella, the 41-year-old man charged with kidnapping Lyhanna. The inquiry, assigned to the General Inspectorate of Justice and the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie, will examine whether there were dysfunctions in the judicial chain.

I spoke with the justice minister and we have decided on this matter to launch an administrative investigation.

The announcement came in response to a question from Gers deputy David Taupiac during government question time. Auch prosecutor Clémence Meyer confirmed the rape investigation is still ongoing and scheduled a press conference for 17:00.

The 2025 complaint timeline

A mother filed a complaint on 22 August 2025 at the Plaisance-du-Touch gendarmerie brigade in Haute-Garonne, alleging her 10-year-old daughter had been raped multiple times at Barella's home in Montestruc-sur-Gers between September 2024 and May 2025. The Toulouse prosecutor's office registered the complaint in October 2025, then transferred it to the Auch prosecutor's office on 28 October because the alleged acts occurred in Montestruc-sur-Gers.

Prosecutor Meyer stated she received the file in December 2025 and forwarded it to the Fleurance gendarmerie on 9 January 2026. Nine months after the complaint was filed, at the time of Lyhanna's disappearance, Barella had still not been questioned in that case. The victim's mother, Audrey, told BFMTV that when she repeatedly called police for updates, officers told her she was annoying them and threatened to file a harassment complaint against her.

New complaint and witness accounts

On 3 June, the father of another 11-year-old girl filed a rape complaint against Barella at the Auch gendarmerie, according to La Dépêche du Midi. The alleged incident occurred at the end of August 2025 during a sleepover at Barella's home in Montestruc-sur-Gers, where three or four minors were present. The father told reporters his daughter was woken the next morning by Barella stroking her buttocks.

Lyhanna's mother had also found Barella's behaviour inappropriate during a sleepover. She told ICI Occitanie that Barella tickled her daughter, after which she told Lyhanna not to speak to him. She added that Barella appeared daily outside the school, bringing snacks to Lyhanna and other children, and saw Lyhanna every morning when she got off the bus.

Calls for systemic change

Martine Brousse, founding president of child protection federation La Voix de l'Enfant, denounced the slow pace of justice on franceinfo. She argued that a rape complaint involving a minor should be treated with the same urgency as a terrorism-related complaint.

It is no longer tolerable that all means are deployed as soon as a person is suspected of terrorism or drug trafficking, and that this is not the case for children.

Brousse called for multiplying paediatric child protection units (UAPEDs) where children's testimony is collected, and for urgent improvements in the judicial, social and psychiatric handling of offenders. Former prosecutor general Jacques Dallest told franceinfo that sexual offences and violence against minors should receive priority treatment, acknowledging that time never works in favour of investigators.

The disappearance and suspect

Lyhanna was last seen on 29 May around 15:00 leaving the Hubert-Reeves school in Fleurance, where witnesses reported seeing her get into a car. More than 170 gendarmes, along with dogs, a helicopter and divers, are searching fields, woods and rivers around Fleurance. Barella, the vehicle's owner, was taken into custody and charged on 1 June with kidnapping and sequestration of a minor under 15. He has been placed in pre-trial detention.

During custody, Barella admitted the girl got into his car after school but claimed he dropped her off at the municipal swimming pool. Since being charged, he has remained silent before the investigating judge. His lawyer maintains his innocence, noting he has never been questioned in the 2025 rape investigation. Lyhanna's parents, through their lawyer François Roujou de Boubée, said they remain in the greatest worry, call for their privacy to be respected, and have faith in the judicial institution.