Paedophile French Surgeon On Trial For Abusing Almost 300 Patients

A former surgeon is set to go on trial in France on Monday, accused of raping or sexually assaulting nearly 300 former patients, the vast majority of whom were children.

Joel Le Scouarnec, now 74, is already serving a prison sentence after being convicted in 2020 of sexually abusing four children, including two of his nieces. However, this new trial is far more extensive, with prosecutors alleging that he raped or assaulted 299 patients over a period spanning more than two decades, from 1989 to 2014.

Many of the alleged assaults took place while victims were under anaesthesia or during post-operative check-ups across a dozen hospitals where Le Scouarnec worked. In total, 256 of the 299 victims were under the age of 15, with the youngest just one year old and the oldest 70.

The case is expected to send fresh shockwaves through France, which is still reeling from other high-profile sexual abuse scandals. Just two months ago, Frenchman Dominique Pelicot was convicted of orchestrating the repeated rape of his heavily sedated wife, Gisele Pelicot, by dozens of strangers. Gisele, who has since divorced him, has become a feminist icon for refusing to be shamed by the ordeal.

However, unlike the Pelicot case, where multiple individuals were involved, Le Scouarnec is the sole defendant, standing accused of crimes against hundreds of victims.

The trial, taking place in the western city of Vannes, is expected to last four months. It will be held publicly, though testimony from victims who were minors at the time of the assaults will be heard behind closed doors across seven days.

If convicted, Le Scouarnec faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. French law does not allow sentences to be stacked consecutively, meaning that even when multiple victims are involved, a defendant cannot be sentenced to longer than the maximum penalty for a single conviction.

What has made the case particularly alarming is how Le Scouarnec was able to continue practising as a surgeon for decades, despite previous warnings and a criminal record.

In 2005, he was handed a suspended four-month sentence after the FBI alerted French authorities that he had been accessing images of child sexual abuse online. At the time, he was working at a hospital in the western town of Lorient.

Despite this conviction, and despite colleagues raising concerns, he was able to move on to another hospital in the Brittany town of Quimperlé, where he was even promoted.

From there, he relocated to southwestern France, where he continued working until his retirement in 2017. It was only after he stopped practising that the full scale of his crimes came to light. In 2017, a six-year-old girl accused him of rape, prompting a police investigation that led to the discovery of detailed diaries in which he had recorded accounts of his abuse.

Victims and child protection advocates argue that the case highlights serious systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to evade justice for so long.

Frederic Benoist, a lawyer for French advocacy group La Voix de l'Enfant ('The Child's Voice'), described the situation as a 'collective failure' that should never have been allowed to happen.

French prosecutors have launched a separate investigation into how Le Scouarnec was able to continue working despite previous convictions and warnings. However, no individuals or institutions have yet been formally targeted in this probe.

With such a vast number of victims and a decades-long history of abuse, this trial is set to be one of the most significant sexual abuse cases in modern French history.