Increased sentences, statute of limitations… After the anger of thousands of demonstrators Monday evening against the role of the authorities in the Lyhanna affair, Sébastien Lecornu brought together a handful of ministers on Tuesday June 9 in the morning to decide on new measures for the protection of children and against sexual violence.
The Prime Minister will receive at 11:30 a.m. in Matignon the members of his government concerned by the subject (Interior, Justice, Health, National Education and Equality). In a letter made public Monday evening by his teams, the head of government underlined the “fright” but also “a lack of understanding of the circumstances” of the death of the 11-year-old child in the Gers, and the dysfunctions of the judicial system.
The main suspect, Jérôme B., had been the subject of several complaints and reports for rape of minors. Some were dismissed, but one of them, filed in August 2025, was not followed by sufficiently rapid investigations. And he had neither been heard nor taken into custody.
Among the subjects on Matignon’s table on Tuesday: “the worsening of sentences in cases of serial rape, the modification of the rules of limitation, the information of victims throughout the procedure or the need to justify decisions to dismiss sexual crimes and offenses”, according to the Prime Minister’s letter.
This restricted council is responsible for arbitrating the measures which must then be integrated into a bill on child protection, already presented to the Council of Ministers ten days ago, and which the government intends to have studied in Parliament in July.
“There is a set of answers to be provided, and legislative questions arise”, underlined Monday evening on LCI Maud Bregeon, spokesperson for the government. Even if “everything is (not) resolved with bills”, pointed out the minister, saying she shares “the sadness and anger (…) of the French” who have been expressing themselves “for several days now”.
Nunez and Darmanin auditioned
Rallies took place in front of dozens of courts across France on Monday. According to the police headquarters, in Paris, 1,700 people gathered near the courthouse on the Île de la Cité, and 1,200 on Place Vendôme in front of the Chancellery.
Many feminist and child protection associations, including Nous Tous, the Women’s Foundation, Face à l’inceste, the Feminist Collective Against Rape, had called to meet in the early evening in front of the courts of more than 160 cities in France. In Agen (Lot-et-Garonne), whose prosecutor’s office is responsible for the investigation into Lyhanna, more than a thousand people, including children, flocked to the courthouse.
Enough to increase pressure on the government, while senators must hear Tuesday morning the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez and the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, who has ruled out any resignation. “We did not lack either means or laws, we failed to prioritize rape of minors,” insisted the minister during a press conference following a meeting with the attorneys general. He asked these senior magistrates to “take up all the complaints that affect children”, i.e. around 70,000 by July 14.
Lyhanna’s death was also reflected in the presidential campaign, with potential or declared candidates dividing on the answers to be given. In particular on the resources allocated to justice – the credits allocated to the fight against sexist and sexual violence “will be preserved” in the 2027 budget, underlined Sébastien Lecornu –, the responsibility of magistrates or the possible laws to be adopted to better protect victims.
Deputies, supported by the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, also called for the rapid examination of another transpartisan law, a parliamentary initiative, to “comprehensively combat sexist and sexual violence”. Echoing Yaël Braun-Pivet, Sébastien Lecornu announced that it would be submitted “in the coming days” to the Council of State for an opinion, “even if” the provisions it contains “probably could not have avoided the tragedy of little Lyhanna”, specifies Matignon.
