A retired surgeon accused of raping and sexually assaulting hundreds of young patients, some while they were under anesthetic, told the opening of his trial in western France on Monday that he had committed “despicable” acts.
Joël Le Scouarnec, dubbed ‘France’s worst ever paedophile,’ has been accused of abusing young patients across 10 hospitals and clinics over the span of 25 years, from 1989 to 2014.
The 74-year-old does not deny the allegations, though claims that he does not remember everything.
Wearing a black jacket and glasses, he spoke in a steady voice to confirm his name, date of birth and other personal information in the small provincial court room. A number of his alleged victims followed proceedings from a nearby building.
“I have committed despicable acts,” Le Scouarnec told the court. “I’m aware that the harm I’ve caused is beyond repair.”
“I owe it to all these people and their loved ones to admit my actions and their consequences, which they’ve endured and will keep having to endure all their lives.”
Already serving jail time for earlier rape convictions, Le Scouarnec faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty. The two sentences would run concurrently.
Some victims have no memory of the assaults, having been unconscious at the time. Others who were conscious said no but it didn’t seem to stop him.
They are made up of 158 men and 141 women who had an average age of 11 when they were allegedly attacked in hospitals across the country.
The youngest was just four when repeatedly molested by Le Scouarnec, it is claimed.
Back in 2005, he was handed a suspended four-month prison sentence for possessing child pornography, but managed to secure a job as a surgeon at a public hospital in Quimperle, western France, the following year.
He continued to work in public hospitals until his re-arrest 12 years later on suspicion of raping his six-year-old neighbour.
She told her parents that ‘the man with a crown of white hair’ had exposed himself and sexually touched her through a broken garden fence.
Police searched his home, uncovering a cache of dolls, wigs and 300,000 pictures and 650 paedophilic, zoophilic and scatological videos.
Notebooks where Le Scouarnec detailed his sexual assaults on scores of patients were also found.
This court sketch released by the artist on March 13, 2020 shows French retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec attending his trial for the rape and sexual abuse of four child at the courthouse in Saintes, western France. – The 68 year-old retired French surgeon may have raped or sexually abused as many as 349 children over his near 30-year career and could be France’s biggest-ever paedophilia case.
Allegations against him cover the three decades he practised in hospitals across central and western France. They include accusations that he raped a six-year-old girl living in his neighbourhood, raped a young relative and sexually assaulted another, abused a child patient, and indecently exposing himself.
After charges were brought against him in these cases, investigators discovered secret diaries in which Le Scouarnec described sex scenes involving scores more children. The children were named, allowing police to track them down to obtain their testimony, leading to additional charges.
In one handwritten note hidden under a mattress, the doctor is alleged to have written: ‘I am a paedophile and I always will be.’
In 2020, he was found guilty of the rape and sexual assault of a neighbour, as well as two of his nieces and a four-year-old patient, and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Following further investigations into the alleged victims logged on his files, prosecutors eventually charged him with the aggravated rape and sexual assault of 299 people.
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Francois, a plaintiff in the case who was 12 when Le Scouarnec allegedly abused him, said he hoped the case would provide much-needed answers.
‘I feel betrayed by authorities,’ said Francois, who asked to be identified only by this name.
The victims and their families want the authorities, who they say should have stopped Le Scouarnec earlier, to answer for the scandal.
‘There is no way that somebody can rape and assault children for all those years without the knowing of people around. No way,’ said Homayra Sellier, head of rights group Innocence in Danger, which is supporting 40 alleged victims and is a plaintiff in the case.
