French court convicts ex-surgeon of raping patients, sentenced to 20 years in prison
French court convicts ex-surgeon of raping patients, sentenced to 20 years in prison Joel Le Scouarnec's abuse of his patients is considered France's worst case of its kind to go to trial. He was accused of the aggravated rape or sexual assault of 299 victims.
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French court sentences retired surgeon to 20 years in prison in child rape trial
Former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec has been found guilty. The 74-year old given the maximum 20-years behind bars after he admitted to sexually assaulting or raping nearly 300 patients.
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VANNES, France, May 28 (Reuters) – A French court on Wednesday found a retired surgeon guilty of sexually abusing hundreds of patients, many of them children, in a trial that has shaken France.
Joel Le Scouarnec's abuse of his patients is considered France's worst case of child sexual abuse to go to trial. He was accused of aggravated rape or sexual assault against 299 victims.
Le Scouarnec told the court he committed "despicable acts" over 25 years while he worked as a doctor in western France, in a trial that raised uncomfortable questions for the publicly run healthcare system.
Le Scouarnec, 74, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Presiding Judge Aude Buresi, whose voice at times appeared to choke with emotion, said Le Scouarnec had preyed on victims when they were at their most vulnerable, including while they were under anesthesia.
"Your acts were a blind spot in the medical world, to the extent that your colleagues, the medical authorities, were incapable of stopping your actions," the judge told Le Scouarnec.
The court ordered that Le Scouarnec be placed on the sex offenders registry. The judge also barred Le Scouarnec from practicing medicine or having contact with minors.
More: Colorado man sentenced to 210 years in prison for abusing children at orphanage
During the trial, Le Scouarnec told the court he knew that the harm he had caused was irreparable.
"I owe it to all these people and their loved ones to admit my actions and their consequences, which they've endured and will keep having to endure all their lives," he added.
The judge said she understood many victims hoped Le Scouarnec would never walk out of prison, but that the law did not allow her to impose a life sentence.
The trial took place at a time of reckoning around sex crimes in France after the conviction of Dominique Pelicot, who was found guilty in December of drugging his wife unconscious and inviting dozens of men to their home to rape her.
Decades of abuse
Le Scouarnec is already serving time for earlier rape convictions. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of a child neighbor, as well as his two nieces and a 4-year-old patient.
Victims and their families have publicly asked why local and national health authorities failed to stop Le Scouarnec. In 2005, he was convicted of downloading images of child sexual abuse and received a suspended sentence, but managed to continue working in public hospitals.
More: Over 200 alleged child sex offenders arrested nationwide after 5-day FBI crackdown
Several dozen victims and rights campaigners gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the verdict, holding a banner made of hundreds of pieces of white paper with black silhouettes, one for each victim. Some papers bore a first name and age, while others referred to the victim as "Anonymous."
The extent of Le Scouarnec's abuse was revealed after his re-arrest in 2017 on suspicion of raping his 6-year-old neighbor.
Police discovered electronic diaries that appeared to detail more than two decades of rapes and sexual assaults on young patients in hospitals across the region, as well as a cache of sex dolls, wigs and child pornography.
The trial took place in Vannes, a small town in Brittany.
The local prosecutor, whose office led the investigation into Le Scouarnec, has opened a separate investigation to ascertain if people or agencies could have prevented the abuse.
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