"The ghosts of Outreau continue to haunt me": the secrets of bailiff Alain Marécaux

More than twenty years after the start of the Outreau affair, France 2 recounts this terrible news item in a formidable eponymous documentary series of four 50-minute episodes, broadcast over two weeks.

Carried by an original staging, mixing archive footage, interviews with certain protagonists and reconstructions, the film plunges us back into this legal fiasco.

Child victims, acquitted persons, lawyers and journalists give their testimony.

Among them, Alain Marécaux, bailiff, acquitted in 2005, who agreed to confide.

TV MAGAZINE.

- You said you didn't want to talk about the case anymore.

Why did you change your mind?

Alain MARECAUX.

- I left myself a period of ten years to talk about Outreau and denounce a system that does not work in France.

From November 13, 2011, I no longer answered any interviews and I no longer gave lectures in schools.

And then, the Belgian journalist Georges Huercano-Hidalgo contacted me for this documentary.

I remembered that he had been one of the first to throw a stone into the pond to tell the French that a bullshit was being made.

So I agreed to meet Agnès Pizzini and Olivier Ayache-Vidal, the screenwriters and directors.

They explained their project to me and I found it interesting.

Was it important to tell your story with hindsight?

What is important for me is to talk about the case again because it allows us to denounce what happened in France, in a democracy and a Republic.

This is part of an unfortunate French judicial past.

It is necessary that the new generations can know, in the hope that this never happens again.

One of your sons is testifying for the first time.

Is it important, in your opinion, to speak?

I think it's good to talk.

I know that the writing of my book (

at Flammarion) and my participation in its film adaptation (

) were elements of reconstruction.

Now, I think everyone sees things in their own way.

Among the acquitted, there are some who no longer wanted to talk about it, like Pierre Martel, the taxi driver.

Roselyne Godard, the one we nicknamed "the baker", spoke out and then stopped doing it.

She did not want to participate in this documentary.

Dominique Wiel continues to talk about it.

We each had a different way of apprehending the misfortune that befell us.

Read alsoOutreau: 20 years ago, France fell into the trap of an extraordinary affair

Did your son tell you, precisely, if it had "relieved" him?

We didn't need the film to exist to talk about it, we did it before.

It's true that we never talked about it much.

I always told him that I didn't blame him.

The concern is that he blames himself.

The documentary offers a mise en abyme thanks to the meeting of the protagonists with the actors who embody them.

How did you experience it?

I found this way of approaching the Outreau affair very original.

This meeting with an actor who plays my role, I had already experienced it with the film

, adapted from my book.

My meeting with Philippe Torreton was a great moment, it gave me more emotion than when I saw the actor who plays me in this documentary because it was the first time that my story was going to be told. .

Can this mise en abyme have a therapeutic aspect?

No.

I almost feel like saying my therapy is over.

Currently, I live with Outreau.

I have a judicial and prison past.

The ghosts of Outreau continue to haunt me.

This film has neither aggravated nor diminished the anxieties that I may have.

Read alsoChérif Delay, victim of Outreau, indicted for attempted murder

Your lawyer, Maître Delarue, also testifies in the film.

Do you still see it?

I saw him recently because he was decorated with the Legion of Honor and invited me.

With Maître Delarue, we experienced very strong moments.

He said to me during the case: "Alain, there are two of us: I can be a good horse, if you're not a good rider, we won't go anywhere."

It was he who saved my life… (He is overcome with emotion, editor's note).

I have always addressed Master Delarue as you and, the day I was acquitted, I said to him

.

During your testimony in the documentary, you are moved.

Is the wound closing a bit?

Outreau, I will have it with me all my life.

When my dad was alive and we went to my mom's grave, he spoke to me about the case and Judge Burgaud half the time.

Fabrice Burgaud invited himself to our family meals because it was a topic of conversation that came up quite often.

I still talk about it with my friends… I have this past in me.

I did two years in prison, I went through two assize courts, I was on judicial review.

It leaves traces.

The wound is there.

It is closed but visible.

“I have not yet managed to forgive Fabrice Burgaud.

But, as Dominique Wiel said, to forgive, the person must ask us for forgiveness.

»

Alain Marecaux

Have you forgiven?

I never resented the children who accused us because they were child martyrs who certainly experienced much more horrible things than what we have been able to experience.

Regarding our accusers, I actually had to do a work of forgiveness.

I succeeded with Myriam Badaoui by saying to myself

.

I took this shortcut and, on that side, I am at peace.

On the other hand, I have not yet managed to forgive Judge Fabrice Burgaud.

But, as Dominique Wiel said, to forgive, the person must ask us for forgiveness.

And it's true that Fabrice Burgaud will stick to his positions, his inability and his inconsistency, he didn't understand anything.

I don't think he will ever understand.

The worst is that he is still a magistrate.

He who made monumental mistakes was promoted!

I believe that he is at the Court of Cassation and that he is preparing files.

On that side, he must be very good but never again ask him to deal with the human or to have an ounce of humanity or humility.

The actor Pierre Sorais embodies the judge Fabrice Burgaud in the series "The Outreau affair" broadcast on France 2. @Prod

Are you still a bailiff?

After the case, I worked in a large law firm in Calais, then I took over a law firm in Dunkirk that I recently sold.

Currently, I am a collaborator in another study.

Some wondered how I could continue to serve a justice that had humiliated me, but I do.

I reintegrated society which, at one point, rejected me.

It was important because my life is in front of me, not behind.

I can't live forever saying to myself

.

I rebuilt my private life, I have children and grandchildren and I am happy.

You speak precisely in the documentary of your three children.

What are the repercussions of the case on their lives?

When we were arrested, my ex-wife and I, our children were arrested too.

The eldest was 13 years old and my youngest 6 years old.

They were placed in foster families, the siblings were broken up.

The eldest was dropped out of school at 14 despite being a year early.

He was then in a home.

When I picked him up at 17, he drank, smoked and knew the children's judge... He always refused to reintegrate into society.

Today he lives in a truck.

My second son testifies in the film because he at one point made accusations against me.

As for my daughter, I haven't seen her since Outreau.

The case broke our relationship.

Was there any psychological follow-up after the case?

Of course not.

There was absolutely nothing, neither for the children, nor for us.

Everything went wrong in this case.

There were no safeguards.

The Investigating Chamber, which was there to verify Judge Burgaud's work, never did its job.

Read alsoFranck Lavier, acquitted of Outreau, appeals his dismissal to the assizes for the rape of his daughter

And you can't do anything...

After my acquittal, I made a list of people I wanted to attack, ranging from the social worker to some policemen.

But, there was something exceptional.

Usually, when there is an error, one must seize the Compensation Commission.

In the Outreau affair, it was the State that came to us, telling us that it was not worth going to the Commission.

It was: we screwed up, we compensate you.

It has never been seen!

I did not want to sign because I preferred to attack but my lawyer told me that we would not be compensated for ten years.

I finally signed and none of the protagonists of the case were worried, neither the nannies, nor the social services, nor the police.

Everyone carried on as if nothing had happened.

Fabrice Burgaud was admonished, this is what we do to minors under 13, we tell them

.

We scold them and put them in the corner.

We considered that putting him in the corner was enough to erase everything he had done...

And you, during the case, you weren't questioned as much as that...

We had, at one point, the adversarial debate with the three accusers at the same time, Myriam Badaoui, David Delplanque and Aurélie Grenon.

It was a simulacrum.

Myriam Badaoui was the leader of the group.

She said something and the other two nodded.

That was enough for the judge.

You know, the infernal couple in the Outreau affair is not Myriam Badaoui and Thierry Delay but Myriam Badaoui and Fabrice Burgaud.

They are the ones who set up Outreau.

One fed on the other.