There's indeed a problem. 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use encoding 'UTF-8';
#use encoding 'utf8';
#use utf8;

use Devel::Peek qw( Dump );

my $word = "État";  # UTF-8 encoding of "État"
my $char = "É";     # UTF-8 encoding of "É"

Dump($word);
print("String Length: ", length($word), "\n");
print("\n");

Dump($char);
print("String Length: ", length($char), "\n");
print("\n");

if ($word =~ /$char/) {
   print "Matches\n";
} else {
   print "Does not match\n";
}

if ($word =~ /\Q$char/) {
   print "Matches\n";
} else {
   print "Does not match\n";
}

if (substr($word, 0, 1) eq $char) {
   print "Equal\n";
} else {
   print "Not equal\n";
}

[download]
SV = PV(0x22608c) at 0x225f9c
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK,UTF8)               <-- That's good
  PV = 0x1822634 "\303\211tat"\0 [UTF8 "\x{c9}tat"]   <-- That's good
  CUR = 5
  LEN = 8
String Length: 4                                      <-- That's good

SV = PV(0x2260a4) at 0x225f3c
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK,UTF8)               <-- That's good
  PV = 0x22f43c "\303\211"\0 [UTF8 "\x{c9}"]          <-- That's good
  CUR = 2
  LEN = 4
String Length: 1                                      <-- That's good

Does not match                                        <-- WTF?
Does not match                                        <-- WTF?
Equal                                                 <-- That's good

[download]

Replacing use encoding 'UTF-8'; with use encoding 'utf8'; yields the same results.

Replacing use encoding 'UTF-8'; with use utf8; produces the same dumps, but the matches succeed.

My suggestion:

In reply to Re^3: utf8, locale and regexp by ikegami
in thread utf8, locale and regexp by Anonymous Monk

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