Outreau Trial
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The Outreau case refers to a
criminal case Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail ...
of
pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...
which took place between 1997 and 2000 in
Outreau Outreau (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France west of Boulogne. The river Liane forms the eastern border of the commune with Boulogne. History Outrea ...
(a French commune) in northern
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and a partial judicial error which led to provisional detentions between 2001 and 2004. Following alerts launched by social services within the Delay family, a long investigation seemed to reveal an extensive pedophile network: around forty adults had been accused and around fifty children were potentially victims. The trial took place in May–July 2004 before the
Cour d'assises In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a Criminal law, criminal trial court with original jurisdiction, original and Appellate jurisdiction, appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accu ...
, a criminal trial court, of the commune Pas-de-Calais (
Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...
) where 12 children were recognised victims of rape, sexual assault, corruption of minors and pimping. 10 of the 17 accused adults were sentenced to prison. The appeal trial at the
Paris Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of Paris (, ) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne. ...
took place in November 2005, where six of the ten accused were acquitted and four having not appealed. The case thus resulted in four final convictions of the two couples, as well as the acquittal of thirteen of the seventeen accused (some of whom were parents of children recognised as victims), several of whom had been held in prison for one to three years. The acquitted received apologies from President
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
and were compensated for their imprisonment. One of the accused, François Mourmand, who had been accused of having murdered a child, died after 17 months in pre-trial detention. A parliamentary commission of inquiry took place in 2005 to analyse the causes of the dysfunctions of justice in the case. The theme of the case, the high number of children recognized as victims, the potential murder of a child, as well as the number of adults indicted and kept in pre-trial detention made this case a national headline and gave rise to strong public criticism. The particularities of the trials of the Outreau affair made it a sensitive and controversial subject, while the words of the child victims have been misrepresented and not all those acquitted would be innocent. The Outreau affair caused distrust among young victims in France, with a 40% drop in child sexual assault convictions in the decade following the acquittal on appeal.


Outreau case

The "Outreau case", which concerned an alleged criminal network in
Outreau Outreau (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France west of Boulogne. The river Liane forms the eastern border of the commune with Boulogne. History Outrea ...
, a working class town next to
Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...
in the
Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...
region, began in November 2001. The first trial took place in
Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...
in 2004, and the
appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...
took place in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 2005. Seventeen people were prosecuted, but more than fifty people were investigated. Mostly parents, they were charged with child sexual abuse and
incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
and their children were separated from them for much of this time. The affair began when some school teachers and social workers noticed "strange sexual behavior" from four children of the Delay-Badaoui family. Psychologists believed the children to be credible witnesses, and later an administrative report showed that doctors found evidence of sexual abuse on five children. The parents were accused on the
testimony Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. Law In the law, testimon ...
of some of the children, which was then backed up by the
confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...
s of some of the accused. During his incarceration, Daniel Legrand, the youngest of the accused, declared having witnessed the murder of a little girl. He sent a letter to the judge and also to the newspaper France 3, giving the investigation a national dimension. The information was cross-referenced with other testimonies but the child's body was never found. The defendants were held in custody for from one to three years. In the first trial (in 2004), four of the eighteen admitted guilt and were convicted, while seven denied involvement and were acquitted. Six further defendants denied the charges but were convicted and given light sentences – they appealed their convictions, and were heard by the Paris ''
Cour d'assises In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a Criminal law, criminal trial court with original jurisdiction, original and Appellate jurisdiction, appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accu ...
'' in autumn 2005. On the first day of the hearing, the prosecution's claims were destroyed, and all six were acquitted. Another defendant died in prison while awaiting trial.


Judicial process


First trial

The trial took place before
Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...
's ''
Cour d'assises In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a Criminal law, criminal trial court with original jurisdiction, original and Appellate jurisdiction, appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accu ...
'', composed of three professional judges and nine jurors. The case involved an alleged ring of 17 persons, with the charges based on one woman's evidence and some corroborating statements from alleged victims. The alleged offenders were condemned on the grounds of certain adults' and, most of all, the children's testimony, together with psychiatric evidence. The children's testimony took place in "huis clos" (behind closed doors); such a procedure is normal in France for victims of sexual abuse, especially minors. The six convicted persons who denied any responsibility appealed their convictions. The woman who had given much of the evidence later confessed in court she had lied, and the children's revelations were found to be unreliable. Only four of the accused ever confessed, all the others insisted on their innocence: one died in jail during the investigation, seven others were acquitted during the first trial in May 2004, the last six during the second trial on the evening of 1 December 2005.


Second trial

The appeal took place before Paris' Cour d'assises, composed of three professional judges and twelve jurors, used as an appellate court for review of both facts and law. On its first day, the prosecution's claims were dismissed, owing to the statement of the main prosecution witness, Myriam Badaoui, who had declared on 18 November that the six convicted persons "had not done anything" and that she had herself lied. Thierry Delay, her former husband, backed up her statement. During the trial, the
psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
evidence was also called into question, as it appeared biased and lacking in weight. The denials of two children, who admitted that they had formerly lied, also contributed to the destruction of the prosecution's claims. One of the psychologists said on TV: "I am paid the same as a cleaning lady, so I provide a cleaning lady's expertise," which caused further public indignation. At the end of the trial, the prosecutor (''avocat général'') asked for the acquittal of all of the accused persons. The defence renounced its right to plead, preferring to observe a minute of silence in favour of François Mourmand, who had died in prison during
remand Remand may refer to: * Remand (court procedure), when an appellate court sends a case back to the trial court or lower appellate court * Pre-trial detention, detention of a suspect prior to a trial, conviction, or sentencing See also

*''Reman ...
.
Yves Bot Yves Bot (August 22, 1947 – June 9, 2019) was a French magistrate who served until his death as Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. Biography In 1995, Yves Bot was nominated by Jacques Toubon, then Minister of Justice, as pr ...
, general prosecutor of Paris, came to the trial on its last day, without previously notifying the president of the
Cour d'assises In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a Criminal law, criminal trial court with original jurisdiction, original and Appellate jurisdiction, appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accu ...
, Mrs. Mondineu-Hederer; while there, Bot presented his apologies to the defendants on behalf of the legal system—he did this before the verdict was delivered, taking for granted a "not guilty" ruling, for which some magistrates reproached him afterwards. All six defendants were finally acquitted on 1 December 2005, putting an end to five years of trials, which have been described by the French media as a "judicial foundering" or even as a "judicial
Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...
".


Remaining sentences

Four people remained convicted after the appeal trial: Myriam Badaoui (who had not appealed her conviction), her husband, and a couple of neighbours. Myriam Badaoui, her husband, and one of the neighbours confessed that they had wrongfully accused other people to have been involved in the abuse cases, whereas only the four of them had been involved. Myriam Badaoui was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, her husband to 20 years. Myriam Badaoui was freed in 2015.


Aftermath


Questioning on French justice and media involvement

The affair caused public indignation and questions about the general workings of justice in France. The role of an inexperienced
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
, Fabrice Burgaud, fresh out of the ''
Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature The French National School for the Judiciary ( French: ''École nationale de la magistrature'' or ENM) is a French ''grande école'', founded in 1958 by French President Charles de Gaulle and the father of the current French Constitution, Michel ...
'' was underscored, as well as the undue weight given to children's words and to
psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...
expertise, both of which were revealed to have been wrong. The media's relation of the events was also questioned; although they were quick to point out the judicial error, they also had previously endorsed the "Outreau affair".


IGAS report on children's medical records

In 2007 the existence of a confidential IGAS (General Inspectorate of Health and Social Affairs) report was announced by
Le Point ''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and conservative news magazine published in Paris. It is one of the three major French news magazines. ''Le Point'' was founded in 1972 by former journalists of ''L'Express'' and quickly rose to be ...
newspaper, in which it emerged that for five of the 17 children in the case, whose parents were acquitted, signs suggestive of sexual abuse had been identified. The report also allegedly denied any wrongdoing from the social services. The report was never published or proved.


Parliamentary inquiry

After the second trial, the Prime Minister
Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Ministry ...
, the minister of justice
Pascal Clément Pascal Clément (12 May 1945 – 21 June 2020) was a French politician, member of the UMP. He was a member of the National Assembly of France for the sixth district, encompassing the Loire. He served as Minister of Parliamentary Relations fr ...
and President Chirac himself officially apologised to the victims in the name of the government and of the judicial institutions. In January 2006, there was a special parliamentary enquiry (for the first time broadcast live on television) about this ''catastrophe judiciaire'' (judicial disaster), which had been called by President
Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris ...
in order to help prevent a recurrence of this situation through alterations in France's legal system. The role of experts (who had drawn hasty conclusions from children's testimony) and child protection advocates, lack of legal representation, the responsibility of the judges (the prosecution's case depended in this instance on a single
investigative magistrate An examining magistrate is a judge in an inquisitorial system of law who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases makes a recommendation for prosecution. Also known as an investigating magistrate, inquisito ...
) and the role of the
mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...
were examined. The acquitted persons' hearing by the parliamentary enquiry caused a surge of emotion through the whole country. The affair was designated a "judiciary shipwreck".


Fabrice Burgaud

On 24 April 2009 the Conseil supérieur de la magistrature, held by upper French magistrates, sentenced Burgaud to a reprimand (''réprimande avec inscription au dossier''), the lowest disciplinary penalty in the French judiciary system. Fabrice Burgaud was heard in 2015 during a third trial and denied again any wrongdoing.


Subsequent convictions

On February 23, 2012, the criminal court of Boulogne-sur-Mer sentenced Franck and Sandrine Lavier, two acquitted from Outreau, to ten and eight months in prison respectively, suspended for habitual violence (not of a sexual nature) against two of their children. In November 2023 Franck Lavier was sentenced to six months in prison for sexual assault on his daughter.


Film and media

In 2011 a film, '' Présumé coupable'' (English title: ''Presumed Guilty'') was released, a drama documentary about the case from the viewpoint of Alain Marecaux, one of the acquitted defendants (even though accused of sex offense by his son François-Xavier Marécaux), based on his memoirs. In 2012 another film ''Outreau, l'autre vérité'' (English title: ''Outreau, the other truth'') was released. It is a documentary about the case from the viewpoint of some of the children, the experts and the magistrates. It paints a picture of how the press was manipulated by the defence lawyers, and how the words of the children were stifled. In 2023, a mixed fiction-documental TV series was released on the French public channel France 2. In 2024
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
released a documentary TV series on the case, '' The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare''.


Child victims' viewpoint

With the 2023 release of a television series about the case on France 2, one of the victims, a child of the main family of the case, Jonathan Delay, called for a boycott. He alleged that the series constituted "media manipulation", by presenting "adults as being the first victims of this affair". The series does not show that certain children, including Jonathan Delay, remain convinced that some of the acquitted were in fact guilty. During the hearing, the behaviour of
Éric Dupond-Moretti Éric Dupond-Moretti (; born 20 April 1961) is a French-Italian lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice (France), Minister of Justice from 2020 to 2024 in the successive governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex, Élisabeth Borne ...
, lawyer for the Outreau acquitted, and later French Justice minister, is also called into question. According to a rumour that reappeared during the France 2 series, he terrorized a 7-year-old girl who, out of fear, urinated on herself. Éric Maurel, at the time prosecutor of Saint-Omer, says in front of the General Inspectorate of Judicial Services that he believes that during the trial the victims "were mishandled", that "the children were harassed by questions from the various defense lawyers. There was tension and very strong verbal violence, organised and part of a defense strategy, including between defense lawyers, despite the president's attempts to restore calm. He mentions "the case of a child of around ten years old who was heard for several hours in the civil parties' box".


See also

* Angers pedophile network, a case in the late 90s where 62 adults were convicted and 45 children recognized victims of rapes and pimping. * ''Outreau, the other truth'', a documentary about the Outreau case, from the viewpoint of some of the victim children. *
McMartin preschool trial The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s, prosecuted by the Los Angeles District Attorney, Ira Reiner. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were charged with ...
, a
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
n case where several adults accused of sexual abuse remained on remand for years before charges were dropped. *
Orkney child abuse scandal The Orkney child abuse scandal was a controversy which began on 27 February 1991 when social workers and police removed five boys and four girls, all between the ages of eight and fifteen, from their homes in South Ronaldsay, Orkney due to alle ...
, a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
child abuse prosecution that collapsed on its first day of trial. *
Martensville satanic sex scandal The Martensville satanic sex scandal, also known as the Martensville Nightmare occurred in Martensville, Saskatchewan, Canada. There were two similar events around the same time where an allegation of child sex abuse escalated into claims of satani ...
*
Satanic panic The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in North America in the 19 ...


References


External links


Collapse of child sex case shakes French courts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outreau Trial 2004 in France 2004 in law Child sexual abuse in France Day care sexual abuse allegations False allegations of sex crimes Political scandals in France Rape trials Saint-Omer Sex scandals in France Trials in France Wrongful convictions