It is a series in four episodes, available on the streaming platform, which retraces the six years of this story which shook up France. With, for the first time, the testimony of Judge Burgaud. But was it a good idea?
Fabienne Roy-Nansion’s emotion is still palpable. Like the rage of Frank Berton or the grating irony of Hubert Delarue. It is especially around these three emblematic lawyers that the authors of the series have chosen to follow the thread of the Outreau affair – we could have chosen worse.
Everything is precise here, with just enough humanity and critical sense so that the numerous period images take on a relief that is both serious and concrete. The file is searched – we see the faces of all the children, a blindfold over their eyes – and we move forward day after day as close as possible to what will turn out to be “A French Nightmare” – that’s the title of the series.
One more story? Certainly. Except that this one collects the words of magistrates who have never spoken before. Was it a good idea? Even. The three former magistrates of the investigating chamber find nothing wrong with their work at the time. We will pass over the error in the name they give to the Delay-Badaoui couple, just as we would like to pass over the justification for the countless refusals to release future acquittals: it was necessary to take into account, it seems, the public opinion. Those interested will appreciate it.
And then there is Fabrice Burgaud. Barely aged. With unchanged phrasing. And always in the justification of what he did – even if his conviction here is trembling. Often he “ don’t know what to say », and we remember, then, that day of the parliamentary commission of inquiry where we almost felt bad for him.
Fabrice Burgaud before the parliamentary commission of inquiry. – PHOTO GUY DROLLET
Only one “acquitted”
Which is not the case for Odile Polvèche, ex-Marécaux, the only one of the “Outreau acquitted” to speak here. This is probably not the case for anyone else. We do not learn anything from this disaster, throughout these four forty-five minute episodes, we tell the story, each in its own way, and Jonathan Delay’s almost hurts. The solitude that we sense around the third son of the Delay-Badaoui couple seems immense.
A short intervention by Eric Dupond-Moretti, today sitting in the chair of the minister who received all those acquitted at the time to apologize to them, is not enough to be sure that we are now safe from ‘a new case of its kind. At least we won’t forget it.
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