A former surgeon has been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison after being found guilty of raping or sexually abusing 299 victims – most of whom were his child patients – in France’s largest-ever child abuse trial.
Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, was accused of a pattern of violence spanning more than three decades, between 1989 and 2014, committed against 158 boys and 141 girls. The survivors were aged 11 on average and alone in their hospital rooms when he attacked them, with some unconscious at the time and so having no memory of the assaults.
Presiding Judge Aude Buresi 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 said.
The judge, whose voice at times appeared to choke with emotion, 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.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term as it is the maximum sentence for aggravated rape and under French law, sentences cannot be added together.
However, state prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger had also made the rare request for a post-sentence preventative detention order, saying there was “no way to verify” Le Scouarnec’s claim he no longer felt any sexual attraction to children.
Le Scouarnec's lawyer Maxime Hessier said his client did not intend to appeal, and hoped to make amends with the victims. "Today, justice has been served," Hessier said.
Speaking after the sentencing, lawyers for the victims pointed out that despite the enormity of his crimes, Le Scouarnec could only receive a maximum sentence in line with someone who had raped one woman.
“Twenty years is not long,” said lawyer Francesca Satta. Another lawyer, Myriam Guedj Benayoun, said the former surgeon would “definitely act again if he is released”.
“As it stands now, given the current sentencing, the truth of it is that in 2030 Mr Le Scouarnec could be released,” she said.
One victim who was 10 when she was abused by Le Scouarnec said France’s laws needed to change.
"He only got 20 years," she told Reuters after the ruling. "In the United States, he would have got thousands of years. It's unbearable that someone like that can get out."
The Le Scouarnec case began in 2017 when a six-year-old neighbour said the doctor had touched her over the fence separating their properties.
A search of his home uncovered more than 300,000 photos, 650 paedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a paedophile and detailed his actions, according to investigation documents.
He has also admitted to child abuse dating to 1985-1986, but some cases could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Not all victims were initially aware they had been abused. Some were contacted by investigators after their names appeared in journals kept by Le Scouarnec, in which he meticulously documented his crimes.
One man, now in his 30s, told Le Scouarnec’s trial he was assaulted during a consultation in 1995 when he was a young boy. "I remember certain things in the recovery room. I was in total panic. I called my dad," he told the court.
Le Scouarnec had been convicted in 2005 for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year.
Some child protection groups had joined the proceedings as civil parties, saying they hoped to toughen the legal framework to prevent such abuse.
The 74-year-old’s four-month trial began in February, and he admitted to all charges the following month.
He previously told the court in Vannes: "I committed odious acts. They were only children... I am aware that these injuries are irreparable. I cannot go back in time, but I owe it to all of these people and their loved ones to take responsibility for my actions.
“I didn't see them as people,” he also told the court. “They were the destination of my fantasies. As the trial went on, I began to see them as individuals, with emotions, anger, suffering and distress."
The former surgeon is already serving a 15-year sentence after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of four children, including two of his nieces.
Kellenberger said Le Scouarnec may face an additional trial in the future, after new allegations were raised in this trial.
Dozens of 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."
Le Scouarnec's trial comes as activists are pushing to tackle taboos that have long surrounded sexual abuse in France.
The most prominent case was that of Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband and dozens of other men. The defendants were all convicted and sentenced in December to three to 20 years in prison, following a three-month trial in Avignon.
With additional reporting from Reuters, AP.
