The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare: The True Story Behind the Netflix Docuseries
Netflix has decided to tell the story of The Outreau Case, the French judicial scandal of the early 2000s that shook public opinion around the world, in a new docuseries entitled The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare. It is a documentary in installments that delves into one of the greatest French judicial tragedies. In the early 2000s, in northern France, the young Judge Burgaud is tasked with investigating allegations of pedophilia in a family. But the case becomes more and more complex as the investigation progresses when other inhabitants of the town also seem to be involved. Between accusations and counteraccusations, the judicial machinery becomes tangled. But let’s go into more detail by telling the true story of The Outreau Case.
The Outreau Case: The True Story
By “Outreau case” we mean the so-called Outreau trial, that is, the judicial case of the early 2000s that shocked France and the whole world. It was 2001 when 17 people were accused of pedophilia and imprisoned for months only to be acquitted on appeal. But let’s take it one step at a time. We are located in Outreau, a town in the Pas de Calais department in the Hautes-de-France region. A group of alleged pedophiles is arrested for numerous sexual abuses of minors, including those of their own families from blood or adoptive parents. There were around fifty suspects but 17 of them were tried with a defense made up of 19 lawyers in the Court of Assizes of Saint-Omer, Northern France which, however, is not ready for such a large trial and unprecedented media attention.
The little victims are listened to, France itself is divided with an insider policy in favor of the accused and the first-degree trial ends with convictions for only some of the accused. The defense appeals at this point and even Sarkozy enters the scene and defends the accused because in his opinion they were judged too hastily. At this point, the court of appeal annuls the sentence, and the defendants, who had now spent three years in prison, are released and compensated half a million euros. However, there is an important turning point. A lawyer, defender of one of the accused – a mother accused of having rented her two children to be sexually abused by third parties – has a pang of conscience and decides to tell the whole truth revealed to her by her client. But it’s not enough because the process is very close to the statute of limitations.
The case will reopen only when the most adult of the victims, the rapper Cherif Delay, who until now had remained silent but who had included his traumatic experiences in the lyrics of his songs, speaks and reopens The Outreau Case. The case ended with four final convictions and the acquittal of thirteen of the seventeen defendants, many of whom were detained for several years. Twelve children were recognized at first instance as victims of rape, sexual violence, corruption of minors, and exploitation of prostitution, some of whom are the children of acquitted persons. A parliamentary inquiry was created in January 2006, with President Jacques Chirac calling the affair a “judicial disaster”, although Judge Burgaud, accused by the defense, was not sanctioned.
The Outreau Case: The Films That Have Already Told this Terrible Story
- Présumé coupable, French film from 2011. It is a documentary about the case told from the point of view of Alain Marecaux, one of the acquitted defendants (although accused of sexual crimes by his son François-Xavier Marécaux), based on his memoirs.
- Outreau, l’autre vérité, 2012 film. It is a documentary on the case from the point of view of some children, experts, and magistrates. The documentary shows how the press was manipulated by defense lawyers and how children’s words were stifled.
- In 2023, the French public channel France 2 broadcast a fictional documentary series dedicated to The Outreau Case.
The Outreau Case: When it Comes Out on Netflix
The Netflix docuseries dedicated to The Outreau Case will be released on March 15, 2024.
