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but a symptom of exhaustion across the entire system. “This system of child protection is today at breaking point,” he said.

Although France records 160,000 cases of #ChildSexualAbuse annually, convictions are made in only one percent of cases. Bard noted a report that stated a child in France is a victim of #rape or #SexualViolence roughly every three minutes.

Bard pointed to what he called the decisive failure in Lyhanna’s case: the third complaint against Barella was never flagged as urgent as it moved between prosecutors’ offices.

Had it carried that designation, he said, “Lyhanna would probably still be with us.”

Bard’s organisation is pushing for a new legal tool modelled on protection orders already used for victims of domestic violence. This is an emergency measure that would let a prosecutor bring a case before a judge within days so a child can be placed in a safe environment, rather than routinely left in the custody