The complaint for rape of a minor under 15 years old filed in August 2025 against Jérôme Barella was “not treated as a priority procedure” in Gers, declared Monday June 22 the head of the General Inspectorate of Justice, Stéphane Noël, who pointed out several “failures”.
“The report identifies an accumulation of wasted time and a lack of follow-up of procedure, both on the part of the public prosecutor’s office and the gendarmerie upon the arrival of the procedure at the Auch public prosecutor’s office,” he added, reporting on the first conclusions of the inspection mission carried out by Ministers Gérald Darmanin (Justice) and Laurent Nuñez (Interior) after the death of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old schoolgirl. “It is not a question of stigmatizing, but of objectifying, analyzing and providing understanding,” warned the magistrate.
The head of the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie, Jean-Michel Gentil, for his part noted that the handling of the complaint, initially filed in the judicial jurisdiction of Toulouse, had been “adapted, diligent and qualitative”. On the other hand, “in the judicial jurisdiction of the department of Gers, the criminal procedure was treated as an ordinary procedure or, at the very least, was not treated as a priority procedure”, engaged Jean-Philippe Noël, who then spoke of a series of “failures”.
Insufficient “control” investigation
“When the procedure arrived at the Auch public prosecutor’s office, the registration (…) at the criminal registry office, affected by a significant delay in recording the paper procedures, was late”, and the “procedure was not directed to the correct gendarmerie service”, he explained. Jérôme Barella was placed in police custody, but “the investigation was not sufficiently directed and not at all controlled, neither by the prosecution, nor by the direct hierarchy of the director of investigation of the Lectoure gendarmerie brigade,” he continued.
Another interim report must be delivered on July 10 and the final report on September 5, according to the magistrate. Investigations have also been launched in parallel by the general inspection of education, sport and research, but these “do not reveal any dysfunction”, specified Jean-Philippe Noël.
