A former surgeon went on trial in western France on Monday on charges of raping or sexually assaulting hundreds of people, the majority of whom were former childhood patients, in what is largely regarded as the largest pedophilia case in French history.
Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, a former surgeon, is charged with sexually assaulting or raping 299 individuals between 1989 and 2014. Nearly all of the victims were youngsters when the alleged abuse occurred, and nearly all of them are his former patients. The patients he is accused of sexually abusing were 11 years old on average.
As the trial began in the Brittany coastal town of Vannes, Mr. Le Scouarnec told the judge, "I have committed heinous acts."He mumbled at first, then spoke more clearly, acknowledging responsibility for some of the alleged rapes and sexual assaults, but claiming that other acts he was accused of did not fall under those categories. He was wearing a black vest, had a bald head, and a ring of white hair on the sides and back.
He claimed that he owed it to his victims to "take responsibility for my actions and the consequences they may have had," adding that he was "perfectly aware that these wounds today are indelible, irreparable."
Since France does not allow consecutive terms, Mr. Le Scouarnec might be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in jail if found guilty. The majority of the rape cases involve finger penetration, which is consistent with the French definition of rape.
One of Mr. Le Scouarnec's attorneys, Maxime Tessier, informed the court that his client would not be "mute or glib" and that he accepted responsibility for "a vast majority" of the abuse claims.
Mr. Tessier stated, "This defendant wants to make himself completely available to the court and to all the parties."
It is anticipated that the proceedings will continue for about four months. The majority of Monday was spent on procedural procedures, but Mr. Le Scouarnec paid close attention to the presiding judge, Aude Buresi, as she gave a summary of the case and then read out a long list of the people he is suspected of abusing.
Following his career as he went from the Indre-et-Loire region to Brittany and then south to Charente-Maritime, where he worked in several public and private clinics, Mr. Le Scouarnec's listed victims were dispersed throughout the west of France.
For Vannes, a charming town of roughly 54,000 residents with centuries-old fortifications and colorful half-timbered homes, the case is unmatched in scope.
Stéphane Kellenberger, the case's prosecutor, told the court, "Everything about this awful case has proven exceptional."
The local court authorities have arranged for hundreds of people to attend the trial, emulating the massive hearings that were held in Paris following the horrific terrorist attacks in France in 2015 and 2016.
The public, more than 60 attorneys, victims and their relatives, and more than 450 credentialed journalists from as far away as Australia and Japan are all included in this.
To replay the proceedings in overflow rooms, the local authorities have commandeered a low-slung, former law school building that is only a short stroll from the courthouse.
As was the case in France's largest terrorism cases, named victims will wear colored lanyards—red if they refuse to speak to the media, and green if they are—and a psychologist and support dogs will be available.
Certain days will be off-limits to the public and media because some victims have requested to testify behind closed doors.
This trial, which begins barely two months after the findings in the well-known Gisèle Pelicot case, in which dozens of men, including her husband, were found guilty of raping her, is anticipated to spark further reflection on the scope of sex crimes in France.
Many of the victims were thought to have been sexually assaulted or raped while still under anesthesia or sleepy from it. Few of the victims recalled the abuse until the police approached them, but many of them suffered from trauma in the years that followed.
Two convictions have already been handed down against Mr. Le Scouarnec. Despite being convicted in 2005 of collecting images of child sexual assault, he was permitted to keep treating children until his arrest in 2017.
Then, in 2020, he was found guilty of raping or sexually assaulting four children, including a girl who lived next door and two of his nieces.
After Mr. Le Scouarnec’s arrest in that case, investigators found hundreds of pages of his diaries as well as two spreadsheets on hard drives.
The diaries elaborately detailed the sexual abuse of individual children and the spreadsheets listed many of their names, ages, addresses, and synopses of the abuse they suffered.
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