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Seventy-five euros in compensation per day of wrongful imprisonment: that’s what, on average, our judicial system awards to the unfortunate souls it has unjustly crushed. Unless, of course, your name is Bernard Tapie or you were acquitted in the Outreau case. His story has never been told. Yet, it gives pause for thought. On July 3, 2002, based solely on the testimony of a woman who believes she recognized him, Richard Laurent was accused of rape, arrested at his home, and brutally thrown in prison. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me; it was a nightmare,” confides the 57-year-old railway worker, married and father of three. A few months later, still incarcerated, he saw a prisoner accused of pedophilia arrive in his cell, who also proclaimed his innocence. “Like mine, his investigating judge had condemned him in advance, without giving him a chance to explain himself,” he recalls.Seventy-five euros in compensation per day of wrongful imprisonment: that’s what, on average, our judicial system awards to the unfortunate souls it has unjustly crushed. Unless, of course, your name is Bernard Tapie or you were acquitted in the Outreau case. His story has never been told. Yet, it gives pause for thought. On July 3, 2002, based solely on the testimony of a woman who believes she recognized him, Richard Laurent was accused of rape, arrested at his home, and brutally thrown in prison. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me; it was a nightmare,” confides the 57-year-old railway worker, married and father of three. A few months later, still incarcerated, he saw a prisoner accused of pedophilia arrive in his cell, who also proclaimed his innocence. “Like mine, his investigating judge had condemned him in advance, without giving him a chance to explain himself,” he recalls.
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Seventy-five euros in compensation per day of wrongful imprisonment: that’s what, on average, our judicial system awards to the unfortunate souls it has unjustly crushed. Unless, of course, your name is Bernard Tapie or you were acquitted in the Outreau case. His story has never been told. Yet, it gives pause for thought. On July 3, 2002, based solely on the testimony of a woman who believes she recognized him, Richard Laurent was accused of rape, arrested at his home, and brutally thrown in prison. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me; it was a nightmare,” confides the 57-year-old railway worker, married and father of three. A few months later, still incarcerated, he saw a prisoner accused of pedophilia arrive in his cell, who also proclaimed his innocence. “Like mine, his investigating judge had condemned him in advance, without giving him a chance to explain himself,” he recalls.

For months, the two men supported each other before being released, acquitted, and then compensated by the state. But not on the same scale. For his 12 months and 18…
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