Judgment concerning France
In the case of B.G. v. France the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to a fair trial.
The case primarily concerned the failure to afford the guarantees of the right to a fair trial during “caution” (rappel à la loi) proceedings initiated by the public prosecutor against the applicant for false accusation of rape.
The applicant, aged 16 at the time, had reported a 17-year-old man, L.A., to the police for rape. Following the discontinuance of the investigation into that complaint, L.A.’s mother reported the applicant to the police for making a false accusation. Although the applicant stood by the details of her initial complaint, she was issued with a caution and was consequently included in the criminal history database for a five-year period.
The Court concluded that the case had involved two successive, indissociable sets of proceedings, namely those resulting in the decision to discontinue the investigation into the rape complaint and then those culminating in the issuance of a caution for false accusation.