THE OUTREAU AFFAIR. France 2 is broadcasting the first two episodes of its documentary series on L’Affaire d’Outreau. Judge Fabrice Burgaud is one of the big absentees from the program.
[Mis à jour le 17 janvier 2023 à 20h41] Judicial fiasco, sordid affair of pedophilia, the Outreau trial and its investigation caused a lot of ink to flow from 2001 to 2005. France 2 sheds light on the workings of this legal affair in its documentary series in four episodes, broadcast on Tuesdays January 17 and 24, 2023. Spectators can discover archive images, reconstructions with actors based on the minutes, with interviews of the main protagonists.
One of the great absentees from documentary on the Outreau affair is Judge Fabrice Burgaud, in charge of the investigation from 2001 to 2003, when he was in his thirties. This one only appears in the detour of archive images and reconstructions in the guise of an actor, but has not given interviews. In 2006, he had to defend the investigation of this file before the parliamentary commission of inquiry. Today, he is assigned to the Court of Cassation. Co-director Agnès Pizzini assures Le Parisien that she “met him several times” before filming the documentary series. “He did not wish to participate,” she explains soberly. Just like the public prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Gérald Lesigne.
Several protagonists in the Outreau affair have agreed to answer questions from France 2 as part of this documentary: four of the six acquitted take the floor (Father Dominique Wiel, Alain Marécaux, Thierry Dausque and Daniel Legrand fils), two of the child victims (Jonathan Delay, 6 years old at the time of the incident, and François-Xavier Marécaux, 9 years old, who speaks of “misinterpretation” of his remarks at the time), lawyers, police commissioners or even journalists who covered the case.
One of the victims denounces an “abominable humbug”
On Twitter, Jonathan Delay, who nevertheless appears in the documentary The Outreau affair, wanted to denounce the documentary series to call for a “national boycott of this series which is an abominable humbug”: “Overplayed, caricatural and far-fetched, far from the dream that I had been presented with during the announcement of the project”. After 20 minutes, Olivier Ayache Vidal, co-director of the France 2 documentary, assures us that he understands this reaction: “We would like this film to be lifesaving for all the victims, children and acquitted. They do not testify against each other, moreover the acquitted have compassion for Jonathan and have no resentment”. He claims to have wanted to pay “tribute” to the victims. “vsIt’s still hard to hear that the acquitted, too, suffered” for the victims.
On playing caricatural and far-fetched far from the dream that I had been presented with when the project was announced, the predators presented as innocent for the most part should never have been released from prison to the profiles of the companies that protect rapists of children pic.twitter.com/4IluKIVCcq
— Delay Jonathan (@jonathandelay91) January 15, 2023
The Outreau affair began in 2001. The Pas-de-Calais children’s department made a report to the public prosecutor after the children of Thierry Delay and Myriam Badaoui revealed that they and he other children were victims of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of their parents and other tenants of the HLM housing estate of the Tour du Renard in Outreau. The investigation took place between 2001 and 2003 and resulted in a large number of police custody and indictments. In total, we learn that 12 children are victims of sexual violence.
Eighteen people are remanded in custody. The Outreau trial opened in Saint-Omer in 2004. While four of the defendants pleaded guilty (Thierry Delay, Myriam Badaoui, and their next-door neighbors David Delplanque and Aurélie Grenon), the thirteen others pleaded innocent. The first four are found guilty. Six others are also convicted and will appeal. They will finally be acquitted in 2005, after three years in prison.
The Outreau affair is a documentary series broadcast on France 2. The first two episodes are broadcast on January 17, 2023, the last two the following week, January 24, 2023, from 9:10 p.m. If you want to watch this program in streaming, know that the four episodes are available for free on the site france.tv. You just need to be registered and have an account to view them.
The documentary series The Outreau affair is broadcast on France 2 on January 17 and 24, 2023 at 9:10 p.m. If you want to catch up on the episodes in replay streaming, know that the France Television site, france.tv, has posted all the episodes of the series online. No need to pay, you just need to have a free account on the platform to watch the four episodes.