Lyon: A French retired surgeon has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after being convicted of sexually abusing over 300 young children. The French surgeon sexually abused the children in hospital rooms during his career. Many have termed this to be the largest-ever pedophilia case in France.
The trial this week in the western city of Saintes concerned four people. They had complained against by Joel Le Scouarnec, 70. Among the four were the two nieces of Le Scouarnec, a young female neighbour, and a child who was hospitalized at age four in the establishment where he practiced. Le Scouarnec has been found guilty of ‘rapes’ and ‘sexual abuses’, Francesca Satta, the lawyer for the neighbour’s family, told this agency. His name will also be added to the database of sex offenders, she said.
During the trial, Le Scouarnec admitted he had raped his nieces. Other legal complaints against the doctor have piled up since the original investigation wrapped up.
Le Scouarnec was charged in October on accusations of sexually abusing a total of 312 people between 1986 and 2014 in several establishments were he used to work. These persons were mostly children at the time they were sexually abused. Prosecutors said they include almost as many female as male, with an average age of 11.
About 30 other identified cases could not be brought to court, mostly because the alleged facts occurred too long ago to prosecute. No date for a second trial has been set yet. The first case reached investigators in 2017, when a six-year-old neighbour told her mother that Le Scouarnec exposed himself and molested her across the fence between their properties.
In searching Le Scouarnec’s home, investigators uncovered more than 3,00,000 images of child and other pornography. They also found notebooks where the surgeon detailed sexual violence against both girls and boys from 1989 to 2017. Next to each child’s name were comments on the nature of the sexual acts inflicted, according to investigators.
Le Scouarnec claimed his diaries included an element of fantasy. Investigators say that under cover of medical acts, the doctor sexually took advantage of children as soon as they were alone in the hospital room. They say his strategy was to pass off sexual violence as a professional gesture, and to target patients so young they might not remember or understand what was happening.
The surgeon also targeted older children in the operating room, when they were asleep or under anesthesia, according to his diaries. Questions arose during the trial about why nothing came out before and whether some people may have been aware of the alleged abuses.
The surgeon had already been sentenced in 2005 to a four-month suspended prison sentence. It was for possession and importation of child pornographic images.
