Credits: Jacques Paquier, CC BY 2.0.
A twelve-page memo sent on July 29 by Gérald Darmanin to Laurent Nuñez describes cases that are invisible to the justice system. It also reports abandoned investigations and a shortage of investigators in the handling of child sexual abuse. The National Judicial Police Association sees it as a trial of the former Interior Minister’s record. Beyond the controversy, the complaint-tracking chain and the resources actually available still need to be documented.
A Twelve-Page Memo, Three Separate Documents
The document at the center of the controversy is not public. This memo from the Keeper of the Seals is dated July 29 and was revealed by Le Monde. It summarizes findings sent by 37 appellate prosecutors’ offices after reviewing the handling of sexual abuse of minors. It was sent to the Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez.
Three texts must be distinguished. The twelve-page memo brings together the prosecutors’ reports. A three-page letter, made public by Gérald Darmanin on August 9, accompanied it and summarized his approach. The statement from the National Judicial Police Association (ANPJ) was published the same day. It is the response of an investigators’ organization, not part of the ministerial report.
Some cases would never have been reported to the prosecutor’s office and would therefore be missing from its tracking tools. According to Le Monde, which reviewed the memo, prosecutors thus discovered 1,275 so-called “ghost” cases in Nîmes and 905 in Caen. In Bourges, about fifteen would have been lost. In Agen, an unspecified number of ongoing cases would not have been reported to the prosecutor’s office at all. Because the full document has not been published, their timeframe, exact nature, and national representativeness cannot be verified.
The review was launched after the death of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old middle school student found dead on June 4 in the Gers. Jérôme Barella was already the target of several complaints concerning sexual acts involving minor girls. He was indicted on July 15 for rape and murder of a minor. He remains presumed innocent. The handling of those earlier complaints is under investigation. It has brought back into focus the ability of police, gendarmerie, and prosecutors’ offices to identify urgent cases.
The ANPJ Turns The Findings Against The Former Minister
In its August 9 publication, the ANPJ says the warnings are well-founded, but accuses Gérald Darmanin of “hypocrisy” and “betrayal.” It faults him for denouncing, as Justice Minister, a known investigation crisis. Gérald Darmanin had then been heading the Interior Ministry for more than four years. The association links these difficulties to earlier policy choices and to the police reorganization that took effect in 2024. This causal link remains the ANPJ’s position, not a conclusion established by the July 29 memo.
The organization also refers to an assessment report on case backlogs submitted to Gérald Darmanin. It allegedly listed more than three million unprocessed cases and already flagged rapes and sexual assaults involving minors. The original document is still not available in the public sources consulted, but the general order of magnitude is corroborated. In its section on the rise in the backlog, the report filed in July 2025 counted 2,573,806 cases at the end of 2024. That figure covered police and gendarmerie, excluding the Paris police prefecture. The latter reported 818,348 in November of the same year. The total therefore came to nearly 3.4 million cases across all disputes.
The Senate report specified that the reform had not slowed the backlog’s growth. It mentioned cases with no investigative action for several years. Crimes, including rapes, had been identified among these cases. However, the report does not allow the share involving minors to be isolated. In a June 16, 2026 statement, the Magistrates’ Union referred to the 2023 inspection report. That report would have covered 2.7 million cases present in investigation services at the end of 2022. It would also have recommended hiring at least 2,500 investigators. These elements remain the union’s account until the full text is published.
Gérald Darmanin Defends His Resources
Gérald Darmanin disputes the idea that he ignored the crisis. In his August 9 message, he claims 8,000 additional police officers and gendarmes during his time at the Interior Ministry. He also cites the creation of the Office for Minors and the doubling of the juvenile unit at the Paris police prefecture. He further points to a 30% increase in the number of Mélanie rooms and other specialized interview rooms. These spaces are designed to let children speak in an appropriate setting.
These figures are the ones advanced by the minister. They do not specify how many additional posts were actually filled in investigative services. Nor do they indicate how resources were allocated across regions and case types. The total of 8,000 also refers to police officers and gendarmes overall. The controversy, meanwhile, concerns the investigators available, their training, and how long cases take to process.
The Keeper of the Seals explains that his public letter accompanied a review of friction points identified by appellate prosecutors. He says he wanted to compare their findings with the difficulties described by investigative services in order to improve joint work. The Interior Ministry confirmed the existence of the memo. It presented it as a working document still under review. As of August 10, however, no public corrective plan sets a timeline, an owner, or a numerical indicator for the irregularities identified.
How A Complaint Becomes A “Ghost” Case
A complaint filed with the police or gendarmerie leads to a case file. The investigative service must record it, inform the prosecutor’s office under the applicable framework, carry out the requested steps, and send back the results. The prosecutor directs the investigation, sets priorities, and decides on the judicial course. The ministries, for their part, determine the organization, the tools, and much of the available resources.
A first break occurs when a case kept in a police station or gendarmerie unit is not brought to the prosecutor’s attention. The file then exists within the service, but remains invisible to justice. The justice system can neither track its progress nor easily match it with other reports in its own applications. This gap is what the term “ghost backlog” refers to in the memo’s summaries.
Other breaks can occur after recording: no investigator available, reassignment, insufficient training, delayed actions, or a misplaced file. The multiplication of software systems and delays in digitization further complicate information sharing. Reducing these failures therefore requires tracking the entire chain, not just the number of complaints filed or arrests announced.
The Data That Is Still Missing
In its current form, the twelve-page memo does not make it possible to measure the exact scale of the problem. Its collection method and the period studied have not been made public. The total number of files reviewed and the list of contributing jurisdictions are also unknown. Local figures therefore cannot be extrapolated to the country as a whole.
What is especially missing is a breakdown of the backlog by offense type, age of case, and risk level. Without it, the millions of pending cases do not necessarily correspond to the same number of cases, victims, or perpetrators. It is also necessary to distinguish budgeted positions from investigators who are actually present, qualified, and assigned to specialized units.
Finally, the responses announced are not yet accompanied by verifiable deadlines. The full memo, the 2023 inspection report, and a shared tracking table should be published. These documents would make it possible to establish who knew about each warning and what measure was decided. They would also show whether priority cases are now being identified. Only then can the political controversy be weighed against the results obtained for victims and their families.