Latest news with #JoëlLeScouarnec
LeMonde
5 days ago
- LeMonde
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.
The Hindu
6 days ago
- The Hindu
Former French surgeon sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping, abusing hundreds of patients
A 74-year-old former surgeon was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence on Wednesday (May 28, 2025) by a French Court for the rape and sexual assault of hundreds of patients, mostly children, over more than two decades. Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced after admitting molesting nearly 300 victims in one of the country's largest-ever child sex abuse cases, which has raised questions about how he was able to abuse so many, for so long. Judges followed the public prosecutor's recommendations regarding the length of the sentence, and the criminal court of Morbihan, in western France, ordered that Le Scouarnec should serve at least two-thirds of the punishment before he can be eligible for release, because he remains dangerous. But the Court did not impose a post-sentence preventive detention, prompting the anger of many victims. Solène Podevin Favre, president of an advocacy group for child victims of incest and other sexual crimes, expressed shock at a verdict 'we might have expected to be less lenient,' lamenting that post-sentence preventive detention was not imposed. 'It's the maximum sentence, certainly,' she said. 'But it's the least we could have hoped for. Yet in six years, he could potentially be released. It's staggering.' Le Scouarnec, who has been jailed since 2017, is already serving a 15-year prison sentence, for a conviction in 2020 for the rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces. In French law, sentences run concurrently and Le Scouarnec should only serve the additional years after the first sentence is completed. Post-sentence preventive detention is a measure rarely used in France that applies to the country's most dangerous offenders. Had it been approved, Le Scouarnec could have been held indefinitely in a secure socio-medical facility, even after serving his time. "The Court fully understood the requests from the civil parties that Mr. Le Scouarnec should never be released from prison. It would be demagogic and illusory to make them believe that this is possible," the Court said. 'As things stand, the law does not allow it. And preventive detention, an exceptional measure, could in no way allow the Court to circumvent this reality.' Le Scouarnec's lawyer said his client won't appeal the ruling. The new trial began in February and laid bare a pattern of abuse between 1989 and 2014. Most of the victims were unconscious or sedated hospital patients at the time of the assaults. The average age was 11. Le Scouarnec has confessed to all the sexual abuse alleged by the civil parties, as well as to other assaults that are now beyond the statute of limitations. In a shocking admission during the trial, he also acknowledged sexually abusing his granddaughter — a statement made in front of her visibly distraught parents. During the trial, advocacy groups have accused health authorities of inaction after they were notified as early as 2005 of Le Scouarnec's conviction for possessing child pornography pictures. At the time, no measures were taken to suspend his medical license or limit his contact with children, and Le Scouarnec continued his abuse in hospitals until his arrest in 2017. Child protection groups hope that the case will help strengthen the legal framework to prevent such abuse. Le Scouarnec's trial came as activists continue to push to dismantle taboos that have long surrounded sexual abuse in France. The most prominent case was that of Ms. Gisèle Pélicot, who was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband and dozens of other men who were convicted and sentenced in December to three to 20 years in prison. In a separate case focussing on alleged abuse at a Catholic school, an inquiry commission of the National Assembly, France's lower house of Parliament, is investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse over five decades. Victims of Le Scouarnec have, however, complained of a perceived lack of attention. "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. Not all victims were initially aware they had been abused. Some were contacted by investigators after their names appeared in journals kept by Le Scouarnec, in which he meticulously documented his crimes. Others only realised they had been hospitalised at the time after checking medical records. Two of his victims took their own lives some years before the trial. Using the cover of medical procedures, the former abdominal and digestive surgeon took advantage of moments when children were alone in their hospital rooms. His method was to disguise sexual abuse as clinical care, targeting young patients who were unlikely to remember the encounters. The notebooks, which detail the abuse in graphic language, have become central to the prosecution's case. Despite the scope of the allegations, Le Scouarnec remained calm and composed throughout the trial. 'I didn't see them as people,' he told the Court. '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 said his first act of abuse occurred in 1985, when he raped his 5-year-old niece. While he offered apologies to some victims, his demeanor struck many as detached and emotionless. The Court, however, noted that Le Scouarnec 'made a point of taking responsibility for his actions,' demonstrating 'his intention to make amends for the consequences of his actions.' The case first came to light in April 2017, when a 6-year-old neighbour told her mother that the man next door had exposed himself and touched her through the fence separating their properties. A search of his home uncovered more than 3,00,000 photos, 650 video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a pedophile and detailed his actions. A third trial is expected in the coming years, following the emergence of new allegations during this trial, including further abuse involving his granddaughter.
Toronto Star
6 days ago
- Toronto Star
French surgeon sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping and abusing hundreds of patients
A 74-year-old former surgeon was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence Wednesday by a French court for the rape and sexual assault of hundreds of patients, mostly children, over more than two decades. Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced after admitting molesting nearly 300 victims in one of the country's largest-ever child sex abuse cases, which has raised questions about how he was able to abuse so many, for so long.
The Citizen
6 days ago
- The Citizen
‘The devil in a white coat': France's most prolific sexual predator sentenced
Le Scouarnec confessed to sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients between 1989 and 2014. Protestors hold signs bearing the names of the victims during a demonstration in support of victims at the courthouse on the sidelines of retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec's trial in Vannes, northwestern France, on May 28, 2025. Picture: Damien Meyer / AFP Joel Le Scouarnec practised medicine in France for decades as an outwardly respected surgeon while preying on victims to sexually abuse and rape them, often while under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. A court in western France on Wednesday convicted Le Scouarnec, 74, who during the trial confessed to sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients between 1989 and 2014 and is already in jail after a previous sexual abuse conviction. Le Scouarnec, one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history, received the maximum 20-year sentence for aggravated rape demanded by prosecutors. The former surgeon, who said himself he deserves no 'leniency,' will be ineligible for parole until he has served two-thirds of his sentence. Crimes concealed behind a facade of professionalism Throughout the trial, Le Scouarnec admitted to the crimes but repeated apologies in a monotone voice that led some to doubt his sincerity. And questions remain over how he was allowed to continue working despite a conviction for possessing images of child sexual abuse. His 42-year-old son told the court that his father's 'perversion exploded like an atomic bomb' within the family, shattering the carefully maintained facade of a devoted surgeon. Authorities found some 300 000 child sexual abuse images, along with diaries in which the surgeon meticulously recorded the sexual abuse of children and animals. Le Scouarnec, who wrote in his notes that he was 'very happy' to be a 'paedophile', admitted the abuse of his patients — 256 of them under 15 — but claims he remembers little of what he did. 'Devil in a white coat' 'You were the devil and he sometimes is dressed in a white coat,' prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger told Le Scouarnec, warning an additional trial could be required to cover the cases of further victims whose abuse is not part of the current case. ALSO READ: French surgeon accused of raping patients seeks no leniency as verdict looms The former surgeon is already in prison after being sentenced in December 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. Victims and child rights advocates say the case highlights systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes. 'Dangerous nature' In 2005, he received a four-month suspended prison sentence after investigators linked his credit card to the online purchase of child sexual abuse material. But Le Scouarnec was neither required to undergo treatment nor barred from practising medicine. And even after a colleague at Quimperle hospital alerted local and regional medical authorities in 2006 to his conviction and 'dangerous nature', Le Scouarnec continued practising in hospitals across western France. In one instance, he told the then-director of the Jonzac hospital in western France about his 2005 conviction but she hired him nonetheless in 2008. Nearly a decade would pass before he once again came under suspicion. 'Good surgeon, pervert' Le Scouarnec said during the trial he had two distinct personalities: both 'a good surgeon', and a 'pervert' who had no qualms about what he did to his patients. The divide between those two sides began to unravel in 2017, when his neighbour in Jonzac filed a complaint for indecent exposure in front of her six-year-old daughter — who later accused Le Scouarnec of digital rape. After his arrest, Le Scouarnec told authorities he first 'touched' a child — his niece — between 1985 and 1986. ALSO READ: Kenyan court extends investigation into four filmmakers arrested for BBC documentary Investigators found in 2000 one of his nieces told her mother that she had been raped by her uncle, who, when confronted, admitted the abuse but no complaint was filed. During the trial, he also admitted sexually abusing one of his granddaughters. Le Scouarnec said that his wife has known about the abuse since 1996, an allegation she denies. 'There's nothing to make me think this. Nothing, nothing, nothing… I never had any doubts,' Marie-France, who divorced Le Scouarnec in 2023, told the court. Incomplete justice While Le Scouarnec insisted his expressions of regret towards the victims were genuine, many said they did not believe him and some expressed anger with the court's decision. The court rejected a rare request to place him in a treatment facility after his release, citing his age and 'desire to make amends.' One of the victims, Amelie Leveque, 43, expressed anger that the court stopped short of imposing that measure on Le Scouarnec. 'I feel humiliated by this verdict. There are 300 victims. Why not go all the way?,' she said. 'How many victims does it take, 1 000?' NOW READ: Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Health
- Miami Herald
French surgeon handed maximum sentence in mass child-abuse trial
PARIS - A former French surgeon was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday after having confessed to the abuse of 299 patients, most of them minors. In what is considered to be France's largest child-abuse trial, retired medical doctor Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, admitted to abusing a total of 158 male and 141 female patients with an average age of 11 between 1989 and 2014. Prosecutors had accused the defendant of having treated his victims like lifeless objects, showing no empathy whatsoever, and exploiting his position as a doctor. He often abused patients who were still under anaesthetic or children who were unable to classify his actions as abuse. The public prosecutor had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, the maximum possible penalty for the defendant. It said the number of victims was higher still. So as not to delay the trial, 299 cases were initially brought to court. There would probably be further criminal proceedings for other victims. State of shock The case has shocked France, and questions have been raised as to why the health authorities were unable to stop the doctor earlier, as he had been given a suspended sentence for child pornography in 2005. The defence lawyer spoke of "a major failure" of France's health systems. He said that indications of misconduct had been trivialized and that the authorities had preferred to keep the doctor in his post. Victims of the surgeon also denounced the failure of the authorities. "How was Doctor Scouarnec able to practise for 30 years, how was he allowed to go about his business, why didn't anyone know?" a 36-year-old woman asked in court. France's medical association admitted its own failings in the trial. The doctor had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for four cases of abuse in 2020. The investigation was triggered in 2017 by a complaint from a neighbour whose 6-year-old daughter was abused by the doctor in the garden. During searches, the investigators came across around 300,000 photos of child abuse as well as diaries in which the doctor had recorded his decades of abuse in great detail. With this information, the investigators set out to find the often unknowing victims that the surgeon met during his work in rural hospitals in western France. Traumatized victims Numerous victims spoke in court about the trauma and psychological damage caused by the abuse. Children who had not been aware of the abuse had also reacted subconsciously to the violence they suffered. Experts diagnosed post-traumatic syndromes, inhibitions and physical complaints in the victims as a result of psychological stress. In some cases, these only materialized after the investigators visited the victims and revealed to them that they had been abused in their childhood. At the start of the trial, the retired doctor gave a comprehensive confession. "I committed heinous acts," he said. "I must bear the responsibility for my actions and the consequences for the victims, which they will carry for the rest of their lives." Unexpectedly, the doctor later admitted in court that he had also abused his granddaughter, who at the time was 2 years old. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
