The day after the discovery in Gers of a body probably being that of Lyhanna, 11 years old, the executive deplored on Friday June 5 the “overwhelming” dysfunctions of state services, a government source deploring that the Auch prosecutor had not applied the criminal circular prioritizing child victims.
“It is clear that there is a dysfunction (…) and it is unacceptable”, declared from Montenegro President Emmanuel Macron, who does not want to “hear any argument of means in this matter”. Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin pointed out “overwhelming and unacceptable dysfunctions in state services”, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he was “shocked”.
The head of government gathered for more than two hours on Friday in Matignon his ministers Laurent Nuñez (interior), Gérald Darmanin (justice) and David Amiel (public accounts) to “take stock of the situation” on this affair which arouses great emotion and numerous political comments in the country.
The Prime Minister asked that “the first conclusions” of the administrative investigation entrusted to the General Inspectorate of Justice and the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie “be given to him within 15 days”. Gérald Darmanin, who will also speak on TF1 news on Friday evening, invited all the attorneys general to meet at the Chancellery on Monday morning.
If the failings of state services remain to be established, a government source deplored that the criminal circular prioritizing child victims in the processing of complaints was not “applied by the Auch prosecutor”, Clémence Meyer. This instruction signed by Gérald Darmanin was distributed in January.
Autopsy ordered
A body appearing to be that of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared in Fleurance on May 29, was found Thursday on a farm, near the village of Puycasquier, about fifteen kilometers away, in the same department of Gers.
An autopsy must make it possible to “formally identify the body and propose medico-legal conclusions on the causes of death,” said Agen prosecutor Olivier Naboulet. It will also have to determine whether the victim suffered sexual violence, and its results should be known during the day or Saturday.
Father of two children, the main suspect, Jérôme B., a 41-year-old man who knew Lyhanna because she was friends with his daughter, was indicted on Monday for kidnapping and sequestration, then incarcerated. Since the start of the week, revelations about his background have drawn a worrying profile, with several reports or complaints, notably for rape of a minor. According to the Auch public prosecutor, he was the subject of complaints in 2022 and 2025. The first was dismissed. The second is still in progress.
In a statement released by their lawyer, the family expressed “the greatest fear”. The Gers deputy David Taupiac alerted, during a question to the government in April 2025, about the operating difficulties of the Auch court, “faced with a shortage of magistrates and clerks, as well as repeated computer malfunctions”. “It disrupted the work of justice,” said the parliamentarian on Friday.
Judicial “bankruptcy”
While awaiting the results of the autopsy, several candidates for the Élysée, potential or declared, expressed their criticisms and raised the question of taking into account the testimonies of children. The president of the RN Jordan Bardella accused Thursday evening the State which had “heavily failed”. “Our judicial system is a failure, it must be reformed in depth,” said the president of the Republicans and candidate for 2027 Bruno Retailleau.
“We must create a real precautionary principle in the face of violence against children”, with “acceleration of procedures” and “clearly established responsibilities in the event of failure”, declared for his part Édouard Philippe, Horizons presidential candidate. On the left, the boss of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier, also a candidate for the Élysée, denounced an affair “symbol of a political-judicial system incapable of managing the subject of sexist and sexual violence”.
On RTL on Friday, Eric Mouzin, father of little Estelle, victim of serial killer Michel Fourniret, considered it “surreal” that the ministers of the interior and justice “seem to discover the existence of dysfunctions within their ministry”, emphasizing that the situation was not “the result of a development over the last month or a few weeks”, but dated back much longer.
