Latest news with #Scouarnec
News18
3 days ago
- News18
Who Is Joel Le Scouarnec, ‘Worst Paedophile In Medical History'? He Also Raped His Son's...
Last Updated: Joel Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 20 years in prison over being guilty of raping or sexually abusing 299 victims. The trial of 'France's worst-ever paedophile," aka former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec, has finally concluded with the court sentencing him to a maximum of 20 years in prison. Joel Le Scouarnec was found guilty of raping or sexually abusing 299 victims, most of whom were his minor patients. The 74-year-old was accused of carrying out a pattern of violence spanning over three decades between 1989 and 2014, committing the crime against 158 boys and 141 girls. 'You were the devil and he sometimes is dressed in a white coat," said prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger at the end of the trial, with Judge Aude Buresi noting that Scouarnec used to prey on his victims in their hospital rooms, with some unconscious under anaesthesia. '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 added. Earlier in March, Scouarnec himself admitted to sexually abusing all 299 victims, as per the BBC. Dubbed as France's 'worst-ever" paedophile, Scouarnec was already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including his nieces. He remained on trial since late February, resulting in shocking testimonies from dozens of his victims. At a time when the trial has been sparking major reactions, with many furious over how Scouarnec got away with the abuse for over a decade, here's a brief backstory for the former doctor. Who Is Joel Le Scouarnec? At the heart of the much-publicised case is Joel Le Scouarnec, the 74-year-old retired surgeon who once worked in France's Brittany. Born in Paris, Scouarnec qualified as a surgeon at a medical facility in Nantes in 1983. In 1994, he was hired at a private clinic, following which he went on to work across a dozen hospitals in the west of France. It was eventually in 2017 that the surgeon caught the attention of the French authorities after a six-year-old neighbour in Jonzac reported about 'a man with a crown of white hair" exposing himself and sexually touching her through a broken garden fence. This led to the beginning of an investigation that uncovered a horror that no one ever imagined. The authorities discovered multiple hard drives containing over 3 lakh pictures and videos of child sexual abuse, as well as notebooks with details of the alleged abuse towards his child patients. The police also discovered a collection of dolls, some life-sized, under the floorboards. 'I am a paedophile and I always will be," one of the posts in the notebooks read. Among the many victims, one of the most shocking revelations came after Scouarnec confessed to sexually abusing the daughter of his eldest son. 'I acknowledge acts of sexual abuse against my granddaughter," he said in the court, as per France24. During the testimony, his eldest son recalled having a happy childhood, saying that his father was always busy with his medical practice, Noting that he grew up in a family where a lot of things were not discussed, the son shared that he learned only a few months before his father's arrest in 2017. His mother, Marie-France, who divorced Scouarnec in 2023, had never told him about the crimes. It was in May 2017 when the son got to know the truth from his father, only to later learn from his cousins that his father had abused them as children. Around the same time, his 42-year-old brother also testified in court, claiming that he had been raped and sexually abused by his grandfather—Scouarnec's father—when he was between 5 and 10 years old. First Published:
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Who is Joel Le Scouarnec, a paedophile surgeon who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison?
Image credits: X/@nexta_tv Not all doctors are forms of god, some are the devil reincarnated when they use a profession as revered as theirs to prey on innocent victims just to pacify their psychotic urges. Joel Le Scouarnec, a 74-year-old former surgeon has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he confessed to raping hundreds of his patients. Who is Joel Le Scouarnec? Joel Le Scouarnec, born on December 3, 1950, is a former French surgeon who is now a convicted child rapist and paedophile. He studied medicine at Nantes University, graduating in 1981 and then specialised in gastrointestinal surgery. He married Marie-France Lhermitte, a healthcare assistant in 1974 with whom he had three sons. The couple began living apart in 2005 and got divorced in 2023. However, Scouarnec is not the only abuser in his family. One of his sons testified in his father's trial that his grandfather has raped and sexually abused him between the age of 5 and 10. The former surgeon has a history of sexual abuse with him being convicted in 2005 of downloading images of child sexual abuse and in 2017 for exposing and molesting his neighbour's daughter. It was in this year that he was convicted of the rape and sexual assault of four children and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo What's shocking is that two of these were his own nieces. Why has Joel Le Scouarnec been jailed? Image credits: X/@SnapMediaLive After his arrest in 2017, Scouarnec's property was searched and officials found evidence of extensive criminal activity in his journals where he recorded the instances of rape and sexual assault. He sexually abused his patients, mostly children between 1989 and 2014 and thus, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He had 299 victims out of which 158 were boys and 141 were girls. He has been dubbed as France's most prolific paedophile, considering he abused all his victims when they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Additionally, he kept diaries where he described the assaults in graphic detail. Scouarnec was dressed in black in the court as he listened to Judge Aude Buresi deliver the verdict. "I can no longer look at myself the same way because I am a paedophile and a child rapist," Le Scouarnec said during his last statements to the court last week. "Many things have been said. I don't necessarily remember everything now. It will no doubt come back to me when I'm in my cell, but what I've witnessed [in court] is the suffering for which I am responsible," he said. He added he neither wanted nor expected to be given any leniency. How many years will Joel Le Scouarnec be imprisoned? The sentence has a mandatory minimum term of two-thirds as he has already served seven years in prison, meaning he could be eligible for parole by 2030, a fact that has upset many of his victims. "To think one day he could walk down the street, see people - that upsets me. We [the victims] no longer have a normal life while they're giving him back that life, and that disgusts me," said Amélie Lévêque one of Scouarnec's victims. "I never saw tears running down his cheeks," said another victim named Manon Lemoine. However, according to AP Scouarnec offered his apologies during the trial. 'I didn't see them as people. 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 told the court. 'I don't show emotion, that's just how I am. That doesn't mean I don't feel it, but I don't express it,' he added.
Miami Herald
3 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.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
French surgeon handed maximum sentence in mass child-abuse trial
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.
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First Post
3 days ago
- First Post
French doctor gets 20-year jail for assaulting 299 people in paedophilia case
Joel Le Scouarnec, the French doctor who sexually abused 299 people, has been sentenced by a French court to the maximum term of 20 years. read more Follow us on Google News A French court has sentenced Joel Le Scouarnec, a doctor who sexually abused 299 people, to 20 years in jail. Most of Scouarnec's victims were children. The case is considered to be France's largest paedophilia case. Scouarnec's committed these crimes between 1989 and 2014. He was arrested in 2017. (This is a developing story. It will be updated as details emerge.)
