In France, thousands of people took part in a “silent march” in memory of 11-year-old schoolgirl Lianna, whose murder shocked the public and led to sharp criticism of the police and judicial system, The Guardian reports.

The girl’s parents led the procession in the village of Fleurance in the southwest of the country. Participants carried a banner reading “Never again,” many were dressed in white and held pictures of the murdered child.

Lianna disappeared on May 29 after she was reportedly seen getting into a gray car belonging to 34-year-old Jérôme Bareille — a school janitor and father of two. Her body was found seven days later in an abandoned grain storage facility about 15 km from where she went missing.

The suspect denies the murder, claiming that he drove the girl to a swimming pool.

The case caused widespread outrage after it emerged that since 2017 the man had been on the police radar over a number of allegations of sexual violence against children.

In 2024, investigative materials in one of the cases were sent to the prosecutor’s office, but according to media reports, the investigation was not launched promptly, and the suspect himself was not questioned before Lianna’s murder.

He had also previously faced other allegations — ranging from sexualized contact with minors to suspicions of raping a child in 2022 — with some cases closed due to lack of evidence.

French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said that about 3 million police complaints remain unprocessed in the country, around 70,000 of them related to sexual crimes.

He described the situation in the justice system as “appalling” and acknowledged failures in case handling, promising urgent inspections and reforms.

The mayor of Fleurance said that the town and the country were “in shock and anger,” stressing that the child became a victim of systemic failures that must be addressed.