299 Child Patients Sexually Assaulted Over 25 Years
Most Victims Were Underage Patients
Investigator Took Sick Leave Due to Shocking Crimes
A French male surgeon in his 70s, who worked for 25 years and raped or sexually assaulted 299 child patients, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to French daily Le Figaro and other sources on May 28 (local time), the Morbihan Criminal Court in western France found former surgeon and pedophile Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, guilty and sentenced him to the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Le Scouarnec was previously indicted on charges of raping and abusing a total of 299 children?158 boys and 151 girls?while working at several hospitals in western France from 1989 to 2014.
It was revealed that Le Scouarnec committed his crimes regardless of the victims' gender, and the average age of the victims was found to be 11 years old. In 2005, he had already received a suspended four-month prison sentence for possession of pedophilic images. However, because no treatment order or restriction on professional activities was imposed, he was able to return to hospital work and continue his offenses.
The investigation into Le Scouarnec's long-term crimes began in earnest in 2017, when a six-year-old neighbor claimed that Le Scouarnec had climbed over the fence and touched them. When authorities searched his home, they found dolls, adult toys, wigs, and hundreds of thousands of digital files containing pornography. He also kept detailed records of the sexual abuse he inflicted on his victims in diaries and computer files. Writings were discovered in which he described himself as an "exhibitionist, voyeur, sadist, masochist, fetishist, and pedophile."
The details were so shocking that one investigator who first handled the case took a leave of absence for several years due to illness. Prosecutors stated in the indictment that the victims suffered from severe aftereffects, including post-traumatic stress disorder, mental disorders, stress, memory loss, sleep and eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, anxiety, dissociation, and suicide attempts. When bringing him to trial, prosecutors referred to him as a "devil in a white coat."
Even as time passed and the victims became adults, they continued to suffer from mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. They experienced memory loss, sleep and eating disorders, anxiety, dissociation, and sexual dysfunction, and some attempted suicide. Some victims, who had not fully recognized the abuse at the time due to their young age and inability to resist, later said that "suppressed memories resurfaced," causing them distress.
Previously, in 2020, Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping this victim, as well as two nieces and one patient. With this latest ruling, he has received an additional 20-year sentence on top of the 15-year sentence he is already serving. Prosecutors have left open the possibility of further indictments, as there may be additional victims whose identities have not yet been confirmed.
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