‘The Outreau Case’: Where is Myriam Badoui Delay now?

This article mentions child sexual abuse. Please read with caution.

In 2001, a series of heinous child sex abuse allegations erupted in the small town of Outreau in northern France. In total, 17 adults were tried in connection to the alleged pedophile ring involving at least as many children. And at the center of it all was Myriam Badoui Delay — so, where is she now?

As covered in the Netflix four-part series The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare, Badoui Delay and her husband, Thierry Delay, had four children of their own who began to display strange sexual behaviors at school. According to the Netflix show, Thierry was a porn addict who, in 1993, was convicted of desecrating human graves, so clearly, the Badoui Delay home was troubled from the start.

What did Myriam Badoui Delay do?

Before long, the sexual abuse investigation of the Badoui Delays spread, with Myriam accusing neighbors in their apartment building and, in time, others in the community, some of whom had little connection with Myriam or her children. The Outreau Case soon crossed the border into Belgium, with horrific child sexual abuse accusations involving bestiality, physical abuse, torture, and murder. More than 50 adults were investigated.

Some caught in the uproar confessed, but others denied their involvement, while some died in prison by suicide, awaiting trial. The prosecution relied on Badoui Delay’s accusations, as well as the testimony of the children, many of whom reported abuse that experts believed they could not have invented but must have been experienced. At the final moment, however, Myriam recanted her accusations, and in a high-profile scandal, the shocking case fell apart.

Where is Myriam Badoui Delay now?

In the end, Myriam Badoui Delay received a 15-year prison sentence for raping her four sons, but she was released for health reasons but was later back in jail for theft and writing bad checks. Since then, it’s believed she’s changed her identity. Thierry Delay, her husband, meanwhile, received a 20-year sentence in 2004, but he, too, was released in 2016. Thierry was sent back to jail on sex abuse charges in 2020. Some accused were convicted, many were acquitted, and the truth of the Outreau case caused the French government to apologize for judicial malfeasance years later.

As those who’ve seen the Netflix show are aware, there was terrible sexual and psychological abuse at the heart of the Outreau Case, but not to the far-reaching extent Myriam Badoui Delay suggested, and her accusations ruined the lives of many people. Why she accused innocent people of irredeemable acts remains a mystery, as does the reason why some went along with the lies she spread in a case of mass delusion and hysteria. It’s a cautionary tale about humankind’s impressionable nature and the fallibility of memory.

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.