Victims of pedophile surgeon Le Scouarnec express anger and fear after trial's verdict: 'Our voices must go beyond the courtroom, or we will be forgotten'
Everything seemed set in stone before the criminal court in Vannes, Brittany. From the very first day of the hearing, on February 24, it was understood that Joël Le Scouarnec would receive a 20-year prison sentence, the maximum under French law, for the sexual assaults and rapes committed on 299 victims, most of them underage at the time. He himself had already accepted the verdict, acknowledging all the facts, including those that were time-barred, and repeating from the dock: "I am the only one responsible. I am not asking the court for leniency."
On Wednesday, May 28, three months later, he was, as expected, sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a period of ineligibility for parole set at two-thirds of his sentence and a strict 15-year judicial supervision. But when it comes to justice, emotions often come into play and feelings can overflow. As predictable as it was, the verdict nonetheless released an outburst of frustration, on the last day of what had until then been a relatively calm trial.
As she finished reading the sentence, Aude Buresi, the presiding judge, explained that the five judges had not applied preventive detention, one of the additional measures requested by the prosecutor, Stéphane Kellenberger. The rare and controversial measure allows a convicted person to be kept in a secure medical-judicial center after serving their sentence, based on vague criteria such as "dangerousness" and a "high risk of reoffending." It is like a sentence after the sentence.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
French dock workers block shipment of military material for Israel: union
The stevedores at the port in Fos-sur-Mer outside Marseille have refused to load crates of links used to assist the rapid fire of bullets aboard the cargo vessel, the CGT trade union said. Links are small metal pieces, used to connect machine gun bullets and allowing rapid bursts of fire. There has been concern in media and among rights groups that they have likely been used against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Christophe Claret, leader of the dock workers in the port, said they had been notified that the ship was due to be loaded on Thursday with the material. "We managed to identify it and set it aside," he told AFP, emphasising that once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them. The other containers for the ship will all be loaded. According to the union, the cargo is 19 pallets of links manufactured by the Marseille-based company Eurolinks. The CGT said the move made clear its refusal to "participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government." Leading rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in its military campaign, a charge vehemently rejected by the government. 'Humanism is not for sale' Contacted by AFP, Eurolinks did not respond to a request for comment. The Port of Marseille-Fos had no comment. "We are very proud of this action led by our comrades and which is part of the CGT's long internationalist tradition for peace," CGT secretary general Sophie Binet told reporters in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Thursday. "It is unacceptable that CGT dockers should be the ones forced to uphold the fundamental principles of international law and French values. The government must immediately block all arms deliveries to the State of Israel," she said. The move was also welcomed by hard-left and left-wing leaders in France. "Humanism is not for sale," said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure. According to the investigative website Disclose, which had access to maritime data, two other such shipments between Fos-sur-Mer and the Israeli port of Haifa took place on April 3 and May 22. French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu had stated at the time that these parts exported by the Marseille company would be "re-exported" through Israel and not used by the Israeli army. The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory, while the United Nations said on May 30 the territory's entire population of more than two million people was at risk of famine.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
French suspect in racist killing of Tunisian neighbour to appear before anti-terrorism judge
A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbour in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said. Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack that sparked alarm over rising racism in France and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as 'racist' and 'perhaps also a terrorist crime'. Anti-terrorism prosecutors, known by their French acronym PNAT, have taken over the case – the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a 'terrorist' offence since the unit was created in 2019. Christophe B., a French national in his 50s, shot and killed Miraoui, a Tunisian man in his 40s, on Saturday in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens before wounding another neighbour, a Turkish national. He posted racist videos on social media both before and after the attack, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. Swore allegiance to French flag A source close to the case told AFP that, unlike jihadist attacks often linked to state-designated 'terrorist' organisations like the Islamic State group, far-right attacks are assessed on a case-by-case basis, as they typically lack connections to such organisations. The decision to refer them to the anti-terror prosecutors depends on the suspect's profile, the severity of the act, and whether there was a clear intent to seriously disrupt public order through intimidation or terror. Christophe B. wanted to 'disrupt public order through terror', according to a source close to the case. According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect said he 'swore allegiance to the French flag' and called on the French to 'shoot' people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on social media. Political and religious leaders have sounded the alarm over growing anti-Muslim acts in France, which increased by 72 percent in the first quarter, with 79 recorded cases, according to interior ministry figures. The shooting followed the murder of a Malian man in a mosque in April, also in southern France and the burning of a Koran near Lyon at the weekend. 'Hold promoters accountable' Retailleau said Tuesday that the killing of Miraoui was 'clearly a racist crime', 'probably also anti-Muslim' Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, called on French President Emmanuel Macron to speak out. 'It is time to hold accountable the promoters of this hatred who, in political and media circles, act with complete impunity and incite extremely serious acts,' said Hafiz. 'Remind people of the reality that we are citizens of this country,' he added. Tributes poured in from shocked neighbours and friends mourning the murder of Miraoui, with more than a dozen bouquets placed outside the barbershop where he worked in the quiet town of Puget-sur-Argens. 'I don't understand why he was killed. Why all this hatred?', said Sylvia Elvasorre, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives next to the hair salon, tears in her eyes. France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States. There has also been a rise in reported attacks against members of France's Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip. vandalised with paint on Saturday.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Greenpeace activists charged with theft of Macron waxwork
The pair have now been released, but their lawyer, Marie Dose, said the activists, a man and a woman, spent three nights in a cell in "absolutely appalling conditions". "I found out this morning that I was going to be charged," one of the charged activists, who did not wish to be named, told AFP. "I find it a bit much, all this for exercising my freedom of expression in France." On Monday, several activists stole a 40,000-euro statue of Macron from the Grevin Museum and placed it in front of the Russian embassy. On Tuesday they placed Macron's double outside the headquarters of French electricity giant EDF to protest France's economic ties with Russia. They stood the statue on its feet and put next to it a sign reading "Putin-Macron radioactive allies". The waxwork, estimated to be worth 40,000 euros ($45,500), was handed over to police on Tuesday night. The pair were detained on Monday. On Thursday they were brought before an investigating judge and charged as part of a judicial inquiry into "the theft of a cultural object on display", the Paris prosecutor's office told AFP. Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France, said that the detained pair were people who drove a truck during the protest in front of the Russian embassy, and not those who "borrowed" the statue from the museum. - 'Tool to deter activists' - The activists' lawyer condemned authorities for detaining and later charging them. "I don't understand this decision to open a judicial investigation, as the Grevin Museum clearly stated that there was no damage," said Dose. "Increasingly, the justice system is becoming a tool to deter activists from exercising their freedom of expression and opinion," she added. The Grevin Museum filed a complaint on Monday but subsequently took the matter in good humour. "The figures can only be viewed on site," it said on its Instagram feed. Speaking earlier, Dose denounced the detention as "completely disproportionate", saying they had spent three nights in a cell. The lawyer condemned the "deplorable" conditions in which the two activists were being held, "attached to benches for hours and dragged from police station to police station". One activist spent the night without a blanket and was unable to lie down because her cell was too small, the lawyer said. "The other had to sleep on the floor because there were too many people in the cell," she added. The lawyer argued that "no harm resulted from the non-violent action", insisting that "all offences" ceased to exist once the statue has been returned to the museum. The activists managed to slip out through an emergency exit of the museum by posing as maintenance workers. France has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Macron has taken the lead in seeking to forge a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump shocked the world by directly negotiating with Russia. But Greenpeace and other activists say that French companies continue to do business with Moscow despite multiple rounds of sanctions slapped against Russia after the start of the invasion. © 2025 AFP
