The man in custody following the discovery of the body of an 11-year-old girl was known to police, and previously accused of rape
22:04, 05 Jun 2026Updated 22:15, 05 Jun 2026
Gendarmes outside a gymnasium used an operations centre in the search for 11-year-old Lyhanna(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
There is fury in France after the chief suspect in the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl was previously accused of rape but remained free.
French police have spent days searching for missing Lyhanna. She disappeared in the southwestern Gers region on May 29, and the searches ended with the discovery of her body in a disused grain silo,
Police notices said she had been wearing a black-and-white striped top, black shorts and yellow socks with branding from the Japanese manga series “One Piece”. Authorities announced on Thursday a child’s body dressed in “similar clothes” had been found, reports the Mirror.
Police in France have ended the search for an 11-year-old schoolgirl(Image: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP via Getty Images)
Police were led to the grain silo by a tip-off that the suspect in custody had previously worked there, Gers-region prosecutor Olivier Naboulet said on Friday evening. DNA matching confirmed the body was Lyhanna’s but more autopsy work is needed to determine the cause of death, Naboulet said.
Speaking earlier Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron joined the outpouring of dismay, saying the case revealed cracks in the system and that he was “shocked”.
“Things didn’t happen as they should have done. That is clear. And so it is unacceptable,” Macron said. “We cannot look her family in the face and say everything went well.”
French media reported the 41-year-old man taken into custody was seen in front of Lyhanna’s school in the Gers town of Fleurance and, on surveillance cameras, later spotted driving with her in his car. He told investigators that he dropped her off near the municipal swimming pool, media reports said.
Another Gers-region prosecutor, Clemence Meyer, said this week that young girls and their families had previously lodged multiple complaints about the suspect, including allegations of rape.
READ MORE: Liberal Democrat Roger Harmer chosen to lead Birmingham City Council
READ MORE: Crooked airline worker among eight convicted over £30m smuggling racket
An allegation that the man raped a minor at his Gers-region home in 2020 was looked into, with medical evaluations and police interviews, but authorities closed the case in 2024 for lack of evidence, the prosecutor said.
The man was the subject of another, still ongoing police investigation for alleged rape when Lyhanna disappeared. The child in that case alleges the suspect raped her repeatedly at his home in 2024 and 2025, the prosecutor said. That case has bounced between jurisdictions.
She also said another allegation of raping a minor was lodged against the man this week. The government has now launched an overarching investigation.
The search for the missing girl went on for days(Image: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP via Getty Images)
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said officials will look at the time it took for casework to be transferred between jurisdictions, why information is transmitted on paper, not electronically, why police seemingly didn’t follow orders and “why we didn’t intervene despite many months of complaints against the man”.
“It’s completely unacceptable,” Darmanin said, speaking Thursday. “We are all terrified by this malfunction.”
He said it reveals “our poor organisation and without doubt, the fact that at the Justice Ministry and elsewhere, we don’t take the words of children seriously”.
