Thirteen people wrongly accused of pedophilia bitterly attacked French police and magistrates on Wednesday in an emotional televised hearing into a case that has fuelled calls for judicial reform.
Twelve of the victims spent long periods in jail before the woman who accused them of involvement in a pedophilia ring and sexually abusing her children admitted inventing the charges.
In gripping footage shown live on television, victims fought back tears as they told an independent inquiry they were humiliated, mistreated and held in jail despite inconsistencies in evidence against them by the woman and her children.
Fabrice Burgaud, the prosecuting magistrate in charge of the case, came under fierce attack although he said in a magazine interview he was the victim of a profound injustice himself because of the intense criticism he has faced.
“I want it said that Mr. Burgaud did not act alone, that the whole system malfunctioned,” said Karine Duchochois, the only victim who was not held in jail after police took her in for questioning in November, 2001. She was pregnant at the time.
Accuser convicted of sex abuse
Wiping away tears, she said she did not see her son for three years and appeals for a second opinion were ignored after psychologists decided the children’s evidence was credible.
The woman who made the accusations and her husband are serving jail sentences for sexual abuse. She said she made up her accusations to spread the guilt.
Alain Marecaux, a bailiff, said police tried to persuade him to say he was guilty and initially held him in a cell with a bright light that was kept switched on all the time.
“There was never any presumption of innocence,” he said. “I thought that surely in this country you can’t be held in prison for a month without proof.”
Marecaux said magistrates never consulted his diary, which would have shown he was elsewhere at the time of the crimes he was accused of committing. No doubts were raised by magistrates when his accuser changed her story several times, he added.
‘Judicial disaster’
Burgaud told L’Express magazine he had done nothing wrong.
“I feel a profound injustice. I am in the position of the accused even though I think I carried out my duties honestly and in accordance with the law,” he said in comments to be published on Thursday.
The inquiry by a parliamentary panel into what President Jacques Chirac called an unprecedented judicial disaster is due to culminate in a report to the head of state next June.
The case has prompted demands for reform of the judiciary and put the government under pressure to explain why magistrates and psychologists believed the charges made by the woman and her children despite the clear inconsistencies in their testimony.
Justice Minister Pascal Clement has said magistrates involved could be sanctioned and wants a first report delivered in February.
Experts said that whatever the outcome of the case, nothing would change unless the judicial system received more funding to help and encourage overworked magistrates.
