E-Paper
France: 74-year-old ‘pedophile’ surgeon convicted for raping 299 children
Le Scouarnec had described his acts in graphic detail, along with the names of his targets, in his notebooks, which became a crucial piece of evidence
A 74-year-old former French surgeon was sentenced to 20 years in jail after he confessed to raping hundreds of his patients over two decades between 1989 and 2014.
Most of the victims, including boys and girls, were children. During trial, the surgeon confessed to raping his granddaughter and committed the same crime on 5-year-old niece in 1985.
The convict, Joël Le Scouarnec, is already serving a 15-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces.
Documented his crimes
The latest trial dates back to a 2017 case registered by a 6-year-old neighbour's parent against Le Scouarnec for exposing himself in front of their daughter and touching her inappropriately through the fence separating their properties.
Authorities searched the surgeon's home and found more than 300,000 photos, 650 pedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks in which Le Scouarnec described himself as a pedophile and explained the horrific details of his crimes committed so far.
Also read | Man convicted of wife's mass rape in France will not appeal: Lawyer
Le Scouarnec had described his acts in graphic detail, along with the names of his targets, in his notebooks, which became a crucial piece of evidence during the trial.
The surgeon's exploitative technique was to disguise sexual abuse as medical care and target his young patients during moments they were alone in their hospital rooms or when they were unlikely to remember the abuse after ‘medical care.’
Victims were the ‘destination of fantasies’
During the trial, Le Scouarnec offered apologies for his crimes, but remained calm, composed and emotionless, AP reported.
“I didn’t see them as people. 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,” he told the court.
“I don’t show emotion, that’s just how I am. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel it, but I don’t express it,” Le Scouarnec added.
Also read | Who are the men convicted in French mass rape trial?
Prosecutor blames French bureaucracy
According to AP, the trial in Brittany brings France's one of the largest ever child sex abuse cases to a closure, but raised questions about how a pedophile surgeon was able to commit such crimes over two decades. Among the surgeon's 299 victims, 158 were boys and 141 girls.
During the trial last Friday, prosecutors described Le Scouarnec as “a devil in a white coat.” Prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger partly blamed the French bureaucracy for the crime. The surgeon was allowed to continue his profession until his arrest in 2017, despite a conviction in 2005 for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material.
“Should Joël Le Scouarnec have been the only one in the defendant’s box?” Kellenberger asked the court.
After four months of prison time in 2005, Le Scouarnec was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year. Rights groups have slammed the government for inaction and said that no measures were taken to suspend the convict's medical license or limit his access to children after his conviction.
Also read | Who are the men convicted in French mass rape trial?
Victims, who were identified from Le Scouarnec's notebook, complained of a perceived lack of attention during the trial. Two of them died before the verdict.
“This trial, which could have served as an open-air laboratory to expose the serious failings of our institutions, seems to leave no mark on the government, the medical community, or society at large,” a group of victims said in a statement.
