'Paedophile' ex-surgeon admits to 'hideous' crimes in largest child sexual abuse trial of France
WORLD | Le Scouarnec is accused of sexually assaulting and raping at least 299 of his patients, with majority of them under the age of 15. He allegedly committed the offenses from 1989 to 2014 and mostly in Brittany region.
TRIGGER WARNING: Some readers may find the story disturbing. Discretion is advised.
An ex-surgeon from France has admitted in court that he has "committed despicable acts" of abusing hundreds of his patients, mostly children. At the biggest child sex abuse trial in French history, Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, said he "understands and shares the suffering" caused to his victims.
Le Scouarnec is accused of sexually assaulting and raping at least 299 of his patients, mostly under the age of 15.
He allegedly committed the offenses from 1989 to 2014, mostly in Brittany region.
He said in court that he was "perfectly aware that these wounds are indelible, beyond repair".
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"I've done hideous things," he said.
"I can't go back, but I owe it to [the victims] and their relatives to admit my actions and the consequences they had and that they undoubtedly will continue to have throughout their lives," he added.
He gave no particular reaction when two men in their 30s took the stand, identifying themselves as his victim in the court, BBC reported.
'Major pervert' and a 'paedophile'
Among all the victims of Le Scouarnec, the youngest was just one-year-old and the eldest was 70.
Police were able to identify his victims of the heinous crime using his diary in which he used to record all the details of the assaults.
The dairy had information related to the crimes of 25 years. In his diary, the doctor described himself as a "major pervert" and a "paedophile".
"And I am very happy about it," he recorded.
He was jailed in 2017 for abusing four children and was found guilty for that crime in 2020.
Le Scouarnec used assault his patients when they used to be under anaesthesia or were recovering from surgeries in hospitals.
This means that majority of his victims did not even have a clue about the assaults until police told them about it with the help of his diary.
"Everything in this terrible story is out of the ordinary... it wasn't the victims that approached the investigators but the investigators that alerted the victims," public prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger said in court.
"Many of them had no memory... several would have rather gone on not knowing. But silence had reigned for too long," the prosecutor said.
The victims who were aware of his assaults told the court that the impression of his crime was so intense that they remained with serious psychological trauma since the abuse.
(With inputs from agencies)
