By Juliette Jabkhiro
VANNES, France (Reuters) -A French court on Wednesday found a retired surgeon guilty of sexually abusing hundreds of patients, many of them children, in a trial that has shaken France.
Joel Le Scouarnec’s abuse of his patients is considered France’s worst case of pedocriminality to go to trial. He stood accused of aggravated rape or sexual assault against 299 victims.
Le Scouarnec had told the court he committed “despicable acts” over a 25-year period whilst he worked as doctor in western France, in a trial that has raised uncomfortable questions for the publicly run healthcare system.
Le Scouarnec, 74, was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Presiding Judge Aude Buresi, whose voice at times appeared to choke with emotion, said Le Scouarnec had preyed on victims when they were at their most vulnerable, including whilst under anaesthesia.
“Your acts were a blind spot in the medical world, to the extent that your colleagues, the medical authorities, were incapable of stopping your actions,” the judge told Le Scouarnec.
The court ordered Le Scouarnec be placed on the sex offenders register. The judge also barred Le Scouarnec from practicing medicine or having contact with minors.
During the trial, Le Scouarnec told the court that he was aware that the harm he had caused was irreparable.
“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,” he added.
The judge said she understood many victims hoped Le Scouarnec would never walk out of jail, but that the law did not allow her to impose a life sentence.
The trial took place at a time of reckoning around sex crimes in France after the conviction of Dominique Pelicot, who was found guilty in December of drugging his wife unconscious and inviting dozens of men to their home to rape her.
DECADES OF ABUSE
Le Scouarnec is already serving jail time for earlier rape convictions. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of a child neighbour, as well as his two nieces and a 4-year-old patient.
Victims and their families have publicly asked why local and national health authorities failed to stop Le Scouarnec. In 2005, he was convicted of downloading images of child sexual abuse and received a suspended jail sentence, but managed to continue working in public hospitals.
Several dozen victims and rights campaigners gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the verdict, holding a banner made of hundreds of pieces of white paper with black silhouettes, one for each victim. Some of the papers bore a first name and age, while others referred to the victim as “Anonymous.”
The extent of Le Scouarnec’s abuse was revealed after his re-arrest in 2017 on suspicion of raping his 6-year-old neighbour.
Police discovered electronic diaries that appeared to detail more than two decades of rapes and sexual assaults on young patients in hospitals across the region, as well as a cache of sex dolls, wigs and child pornography.
The trial took place in Vannes, a small town in Brittany.
The local prosecutor, whose office led the investigation into Le Scouarnec, has opened a separate investigation to ascertain if there was any criminal liability by agencies or individuals who could have prevented the abuse.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by GV De Clercq, Richard Lough and Bernadette Baum)
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