Joël Le scouarnec was accused of violation or sexual aggression from 299 patients between 1989 and 2014
The cases occurred between 1989 and 2014 and is now the biggest case of sexual abuse of children in the history of France: Joël Le Scouarnec, the surgeon, abused 299 patients over decades, often while they were under the influence of anesthesia.
In a short time, it is the second shocking case to be tried in the country, after the Pelicot case, which culminated in December with the condemnation of all defendants and with France for the crime of violation – 20 years – for, the man who He engendered the whole scheme, which seduced the victim, opened the doors of his house to strangers and filmed his wife to be violated once and over again.
SCouarnec, 73, worked in various public and private hospitals in Brittany and in western France, and often operated children with appendicitis ,.
According to Stéphane Kellenberger, prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor of Lorient, “many victims were in the hospital operations room under anesthesia, recovering after surgery, in sedation or sleeping, which means that these victims were unable to perceive the that was made to them. ”
The surgeon was reported by the FBI to the French authorities in 2004 after being caught viewing images of abuse of children on the Dark Web. At the time, Scoucouarnec was sentenced to a suspended penalty of four years in prison, but was never prevented from working with children.
Now, the surgeon – who continued to work in hospitals across the country – will be tried for violation and sexual aggression of 299 patients, 158 male and 141 female. Of the victims, 256 were under 15 years old and the average age was 11 years.
This is because in 2017 the neighbors of Scoucouarnec denounced him to the police and, during the searches, images of the abuses, notebooks and, hidden under the floor, a collection of dolls were found. In 2020, the surgeon was sentenced to 15 years in prison for abuse of four children, one of them hospitalized during a trial that was not public.
Now, in this second trial, which should last four months, there are evidence like the notebooks where Scoucouarnec – who is detained – wrote the initials of patients and abuse. The authorities crossed the notebook data with the hospital records to identify the victims.
The surgeon admitted some of the crimes, but refused others, having explained ” mode of operationits determination to act in this way, and the concealment strategies not to risk being discovered, “Kellenberger said.
Francesca Satta, a lawyer of ten of the victims, including the families of two men who committed committed after being informed by police about what had happened to them, says it was devastating to many of the victims, now 30 and 40, listening to excerpts of Le Scouarnec’s diaries when they were children.
About the 2020 trial, Satta says he revealed “a manipulator, without empathy or understanding of other people, who considered sexual objects” and showed that “lived in a bubble of children’s abuse.”
“In a way, this is the judgment of an entire society. At the time, in France, there was a kind of respect for the so -called remarkable people of society, lawyers or doctors and surgeons. These people were confident and not seen to commit crimes . Judgment will also open the door to a true judicial analysis of abuses against children in France and the way they should be treated, in terms of penalties and prevention, “he said, adding that Scoucouarnet was” a monster who made his place of place I work your hunting ground “.
The lawyer of the organization La Voix de L’Onfant (The Voice of the Child), a civil part in the process, considered that there were a “series of failures and dysfunctions” at the institutional level that allowed the surgeon to continue to commit crimes for years. According to Frédéric Benoist, when the FBI first informed the French authorities about Scouarnet online activity, the surgeon was not arrested. Instead, he was called to appear at the squadron and at his house were not found any evidence – which would be found in his office in the hospital, where he had images stored on the work computer.
The second trial starts February 24 at the Vannes Court and may result in a 20 -year conviction for Scoucouarnet.
