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The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare

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The Outreau Case poster: Thierry Delay and Myriam Badaoui sit holding their heads in hands.

Common Sense Media Review

Melissa Camacho By Melissa Camacho , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 15+

Docuseries shows failure of a modern justice sytem.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Any Positive Content?

  • The Outreau Case screenshot 1: Myriam Badaoui sits in court.
  • The Outreau Case screenshot 2: Artist drawing of defendants standing in court.
  • The Outreau Case screenshot 3: Someone looks inside a mock up of

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What's the Story?

THE OUTREAU CASE: A FRENCH NIGHTMARE is a French docuseries about one of the most complicated and controversial cases in contemporary French history. In 2001, five-year-old Jonathan Delay and his siblings were sent to live with foster families due to their father, Thierry Delay's domestic abuse. But their odd behavior led to revelations that they had been sexually abused by both Thierry and their mother, Myriam Badaoui, who claimed that she helped create a pedophile ring in Outreau, Northern France in 1995. Based on the children's testimony, which was evaluated by the court's expert psychologist Marie-Christine Gryson, a young and relatively inexperienced examining magistrate named Fabrice Burgaud ordered the arrest of Theirry Delay and Myriam Badaoui and their former neighbors, David Delplanque and Aurelie Grenon, for child sexual assault. The four admitted to their crimes, but the Delay children and other youngsters living in their working class neighborhood of La Tour du Renard continued to name abusers, ranging from one of the Delay children's godparents and a local baker and her husband to a taxi driver and a bailiff and his wife living in another part of the city. Ultimately, eighteen adults were charged with gang raping eighteen children, and most were remanded into custody for several years to await trial. What follows is a narrative detailing three years of ongoing investigations, sensational trials, and the conviction of six people who were later acquitted when it was revealed that the children had made false accusations against them. Archive footage and interviews with now-adult Jonathan Delay, Burgaud, Gryson, journalists, members of the judiciary, and some of whom were falsely accused help give a first-hand account of what happened.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This disturbing docuseries reveals the details behind a convoluted case, which is locally viewed as an example of one of the worst breakdowns of the French justice system. In The Outreau Case, Theirry Delay and Myriam Badoui's guilt is never in question or minimized, nor is the suffering their children endured at their hands. However, it points to Marie-Christine Bryson's willingness to believe many of their later accusations, and the descriptions of violent abuse from other children, at face value despite the lack of physical evidence. It also highlights the questions raised about Fabrice Burgaud's handling of the investigation, and what may have driven him to remand certain defendants for trial without doing more to authenticate the children's statements.

The media frenzy resulting from the sensational nature of the case, while not surprising, also raises questions about why some of the innocent were convicted, and why the sentences handed down were so uneven. But the testimony of those who were falsely accused, many of whom were separated from their children for years as they sat in jail, is heartbreaking. So are the conversations with Jonathan Delay, who maintains that all the original accusations he and his brothers made against multiple defendants were true. Ultimately, The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare isn't just a story about survivors of sexual violence or victims of a flawed judicial system, but a tale about living with endless doubts about whether or not justice was served to the right people.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what to do if they or someone they know is being abused. Who should they go to for help? Why is it important not to stay silent?

  • The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare addresses the harm that was done to innocent people an an effort to help children. But do the ends justify the means?

TV Details

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