When the body of an 11-year-old girl was found in a disused grain silo on a farm in the Gers region of south-west France last month, the news sent shockwaves across the country. Lyhanna had been missing for nearly a week. Members of the public had been out combing the area. Suspicion quickly focused on Jérôme Barella, the 41-year-old father of one of Lyhanna’s classmates, in whose car Lyhanna had last been seen alive.

Barella was charged in connection with the case, but denies any wrongdoing or involvement in the killing. But shock turned to public outrage after a local prosecutor revealed that the suspect had been the subject of several accusations of sexual violence against young girls before Lyhanna’s disappearance, yet until then had never been questioned by police.

With the political fallout intensifying, the justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, has sought to focus attention on the failings of the judicial system, raising the possibility of magistrates being sacked, and ordering public prosecutors to review “every case involving children” – about 70,000 unsolved cases in total – by 14 July. My first reaction to that announcement was: why are 70,000 cases still awaiting review? Were they not considered urgent before this tragedy?

Of course, it is likely that serious mistakes were made throughout the handling of the Lyhanna case, as a preliminary inspection report has already indicated.

But the problem runs far deeper. France has one of the lowest ratios of public prosecutors in Europe: roughly 3.2 prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants, nearly four times fewer than the average........

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