The Outreau Case is a famous French case where many children reported abuses by relatives in the North of France, in the end of the 90s. The case resulted in four final convictions and the acquittal of 13 of the 17 accused, several of whom had been held in prison for several years. 12 children were recognized at first instance as victims of rape, sexual assault, corruption of minors and pimping (some of whom are children of acquitted people...) .
How was that possible ?
As a reminder, the Delay children are the first to speak and admit to being victims of rape. They come from a large, very poor family, who live in a working-class neighborhood of Outreau in the north of France. After their testimonies, dozens of others are added, other children who claim to have also suffered similar acts. The investigation that follows reveals a vast pedophile prostitution network, centered around the Delay family. Those placed in police custody accuse each other and ultimately 18 of them are incarcerated until the trial.
One of the incarcerated defendants even testifies to having witnessed a murder scene, that of a foreign little girl who was struggling too much. His testimony is corroborated by other witnesses, including the Delay children, but no body having been found, the trail is not followed by the courts...
The trial took place in 2004 in Saint-Omer. It was fiasco : in the small courtroom, child victims are placed in the accused box, and are only defended by two court-appointed lawyers. Facing them there are 17 accused, one of them committed suicide in prison, in the company of their 17 lawyers. Due to their number, the accused occupy the benches of the courtroom, installed in the middle of the hundred journalists covering the case...
Children, in front of the Court, cannot testify calmly because they are systematically cut off from speaking. They are assailed by numerous lawyers with inquisitive questions. Out of fear, and faced with the anger of Éric Dupont Moretti (now French Justice Minister), lawyer for one of the accused, one of the children urinated on himself in the middle of the hearing...
During the trial, the mother of the Delay children, Myriam Badaoui, declared that she had invented everything. For the defense and the media, this is proof that the children were manipulated and fabricated.
However, the next day she retracted and returned to her initial testimony. Too late, she lost her credibility in the eyes of public opinion, and journalists found their side and the story to impose in the media. When the verdict arrives, out of the 17 accused, 10 are convicted and 7 are acquitted. At the same time, 12 of the children were recognized as victims of rape and pimping.
A year later, the appeal trial took place in Paris. Defense lawyers adopt the same strategy: they do not allow the trial to focus on the content of the file. To do this, children are constantly cut off and called liars, so much so that we almost forget that they are the victims of this affair.
As the acquitted had been into jail for 3 years, time to be acquitted, they were treated as heroes by the French media and the French President Chirac gave them official apologies.
In 2011 a movie was released from a book written by one of the acquitted, Alain Marécaux, whose son had been recognised as victim of sexual abuses with other 11 children.
Since that time one of the acquitted (Franck Lavier) and his wife were condamned for sexual abuse on one of their daughter (suprise !)
I personally know of the victim children, their life is chaotic and so hard as they were called liars and their words were silenced. Most of the 12 kids lived on the streets at some time as they don't have support. The victim children were compensated about 30 000€ each for having been raped and sexually abused, whereas the acquitted were compensated about 300 000€ to 1M€ each for 3 years imprisonment.
Here is the worst for the Children cause : The Outreau affair contributed to harm the consideration of the child's voice in France, with a 40% drop in convictions in the decade following the acquittal.
more info about the Outreau case here :
https://outreaucase.wordpress.com/