Most Charges Admitted in Court
Average Age of Victims Was 11
Crimes Committed Under Pretense of Medical Examinations
A former French surgeon has stood trial on charges of sexually assaulting or abusing hundreds of child patients over a span of 25 years. On the 23rd (local time), foreign media including the Associated Press reported on the criminal acts of former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec (74), who was prosecuted for sexual crimes against a total of 299 individuals?158 males and 141 females?from 1989 to 2014.
On this day, Squarnek appeared at the court in Bann, located in the Brittany region of northwestern France, and admitted to most of the charges, stating that he had "engaged in malicious behavior." AFP·Yonhap News
On that day, Le Scouarnec appeared at a court in the Brittany region in northwestern France and admitted to most of the charges, stating that he had committed "vicious acts." The reason Le Scouarnec’s crimes shocked French society even more was that the average age of the victims was 11 years old. Prosecutors revealed that many of the victims were unconscious in the operating room or were under anesthesia or sedation at the time of the incidents. Prosecutors stated that Le Scouarnec committed the crimes under the pretense of conducting health examinations.
Even more shocking is that Le Scouarnec had already been sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Saint Court of France in 2020 for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including his nephew, patients, and neighbors, between 1989 and 2017, and was serving his sentence. His criminal acts were uncovered after police searched his home following the testimony of a 6-year-old neighbor girl who said he had touched her body. Police reportedly seized diaries detailing decades of offenses and approximately 300,000 obscene photos from his residence. This trial will continue until June, and if convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. In court that day, a male victim testified, "30 years ago, I was a patient of Le Scouarnec," and recalled "some of what happened in the recovery room and how I was terrified and called for my father."
Meanwhile, outside the courtroom that day, women’s and children’s rights groups held rallies demanding zero tolerance for sexual violence and severe punishment for the perpetrator. Notably, this case is being closely watched by French society as a continuation of the Giselle Pellico case last year, in which 50 perpetrators who raped her while she was in a coma and her husband who orchestrated these heinous sexual crimes were brought to public trial.
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