Updated 00.49 | Published 00.02
The case surrounding Lyhanna grows.
More and more girls are accusing murder suspect Jérôme Bardella of abuse.
American child protection organization NCMEC alerted French police about him several times, according to French media sources.
France is boiling after Lyhanna, 11, was found dead in a grain silo in the outer city of Fleurence Toulouse after being missing without a trace for several days.
This week she was buried.
At the same time, the anger has caused tens of thousands of French people to take to the streets and demand that Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin resign.
Everyone wonders: How could it happen?
The murder suspect, Jérôme Bardella, 41, who is Lyhanna’s father’s best friend, has been known to the police for almost a decade and has been repeatedly reported for sexual assault and rape without prosecution.
“The justice system did not do its job”
As recently as last August, a mother reported him for raping her 10-year-old daughter. The case was never investigated even though the evidence was good, and Bardella escaped police questioning.
– The doctors examined my daughter. She was interrogated for hours and hours to prove she wasn’t lying. She saw a psychologist twice. And nothing was done. The justice system didn’t do its job, and I don’t understand how we can wait a year, and then someone dies. I just don’t understand, says her mother crying at a press conference.
Also in 2022, another report of rape against a seven-year-old girl was taken down.
On Monday, two new families submitted reports of sexual abuse against the 41-year-old. It concerns two 10-year-old girls, friends of his eldest daughter, who were invited to a pajama party at Bardella’s house in 2025.
The US sounds the alarm
The US has also raised the alarm about the father of two.
Jérôme Bardella’s internet history caused the American organization NCMEC to raise the alarm about him several times to French authorities, sources told BFMTV and Le Monde. Every year, the organization shares lots of tips about suspected child pornography crimes with authorities worldwide.
According to BFMTV, one of the reports is from 2023, but his name did not appear in the report then.
The NCMEC reports were only discovered when the Lyhanna case came to light and the police began investigating his background. That is said to be the explanation for why they had not started an investigation earlier.
Brother and father were singled out
Jérôme Bardella is also not the only one in his family suspected of serious crimes.
His brother Yannic Barella was charged during the week with rape in intimate relationships and against a minor. On Wednesday, he was released on bail.
The brothers’ father was reported in 2013 for the rape of his partner’s 10-year-old grandson, writes RTL. He was never charged with the crimes and the case was dropped in 2021 after a years-long investigation. But now a prosecutor in Béziers wants to reconsider the case after a minor person close to him reported him.
