Outreau case: these lunar excuses that Judge Burgaud gave so that no one had access to the file

He is one of the protagonists of the Outreau affair. In January 2001, fresh out of school, Judge Fabrice Burgaud was entrusted with the investigation of the Delay-Badaoui case, a criminal case in which four children, Chérif, Dimitri, jonathan and Dylan, accuse their parents of sexual assault. During the investigation, four people recognize the facts: Thierry Delay and Myriam Badaoui, the parents of the victims, and their next-door neighbors, David Delplanque and Aurélie Grenon. But convinced that the case goes further, Judge Burgaud embarks on a real manhunt. In all, 18 adults were arrested and imprisoned, sometimes for several years. Thirteen of them were acquitted in 2005, which Jacques Chirac described as “unprecedented legal disaster”.

In the documentary The Outreau Affairbroadcast this Tuesday, January 17, 2023 on France 2, the lawyers of the case return to the Outreau fiasco. In particular, they evoke the questionable methods of Judge Burgaud, whom obsession led to the worst errors of judgment. “Mr. Burgaud thought he had the deal of the century, thought he had an international pedophile network, says Fabienne Roy-Nansion, lawyer for David Delplanque. I also believe that he made it a point to manage this file on his own, that this file obsessed him, that it had to occupy him day and night..” “Mr. Burgaud is, it must be said, this is important, locked up in his office. Completely locked upadds Olivier Rangeon, lawyer for Daniel Legrand, son.

“He is like in his ivory tower locked up with his file”

According to the magistrates, Judge Burgaud wanted so much to lead the dance that he prevented the other actors in the case from accessing the details of the investigation. “He is like in his ivory tower locked up with his file, continues Master Rangeon. This is unusual for lawyers because he only has one copy of the file that is available. You have to ask Monsieur Burgaud for permission first.”

And this authorization is very difficult to obtain. According to Hubert Delarue, lawyer for Alain Marécaux, the examining magistrate did everything not to deliver her, to the point of inventing excuses that were elaborate to say the least. “It was ‘the photocopier does not work’. When it worked, the one who had to make it work was on RTT, after he was sick, or after he had retired, he was not replaced, remembers Master Delarue. On had all the possible and unimaginable excuses and therefore a very great difficulty to see the file as a whole. We work in a very complicated, very difficult atmosphere, in a hostile atmosphere.”

Widely criticized for his handling of the Outreau affair, Judge Burgaud partly acknowledged his wrongdoing during a hearing with parliamentarians on February 8, 2006. “Today, perhaps more than any other, I can feel their pain, picture to myself what they went through, the confinement, the separation from loved ones, their questioned honestyhe confided. I am entirely responsible for my instruction and I do not wish to evade my responsibility.” After seeing each other “reprimanded with entry on file” by the Superior Council of the Judiciary in April 2009, the investigating judge continued his career in the judiciary. Since 2017, he has been Advocate General at the Court of Cassation.