Latest news with #childvictims
CBC
6 days ago
- Health
- CBC
Former French surgeon who raped 299 children sentenced to 20 years in prison
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it. A 74-year-old pedophile and former surgeon who raped dozens of children over a period spanning more than two decades was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence on Wednesday by a French court. Joël Le Scouarnec was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting 299 children. Judges followed the public prosecutor's recommendations regarding the length of the sentence, and the criminal court of Morbihan ordered that Le Scouarnec should serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before he can be eligible for release. Le Scouarnec 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. The new trial in Brittany, western France, 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. Among the victims were 158 boys and 141 girls. Accusations of inaction During the trial, advocacy groups have accused health authorities of inaction after they were notified as soon 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. "Should Joël Le Scouarnec have been the only one in the defendant's box?" prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger asked during his closing arguments. "More could have been done," Kellenberger said. "Things could have been done differently, even within the notorious layers of French bureaucracy, where responsibilities are so often passed from one authority to another until, eventually, that responsibility is lost, and hits innocent lives." Le Scouarnec has confessed to all the sexual abuse alleged by the 299 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. Le Scouarnec had been convicted in 2005 for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year. Child protection groups that have joined the proceedings as civil parties hope that the case will help strengthen the legal framework to prevent such abuse. Dismantling taboos 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 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 focusing 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 in a statement. Horrific notebooks 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 realized they had been hospitalized 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 has 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. Detached and emotionless While he offered apologies to some victims, his demeanour struck many as detached and emotionless. "I don't show emotion, that's just how I am," he said. "That doesn't mean I don't feel it, but I don't express it." 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 300,000 photos, 650 pedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a pedophile and detailed his actions. "Joël Le Scouarnec says he no longer feels any sexual attraction to children, but there's no way to verify that," Kellenberger, the prosecutor, told the court. "Experts concluded that we cannot rely on his word alone and that his potential for future danger remains significant." A third trial is expected in the coming years, following the emergence of new allegations during this trial, including further abuse involving his granddaughter. Gisèle Pelicot's daughter describes the torment of her mother's rape trial 2 months ago Duration 2:12 Caroline Darian's father Dominique Pelicot is serving 20 years in a French prison for repeatedly drugging and raping his then-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, and inviting strangers to do the same. Darian writes about her family's horror in a new memoir, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again.
Times of Oman
26-05-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Gaza: 9 children of doctor couple killed in Israeli strike
Gaza's civil defense agency said an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis on Friday killed nine of the 10 children of a married doctor couple. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Saturday that civil defense "crews transported the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children." In a statement, Israel's military said it struck suspects operating from a structure near to its forces and described the area of Khan Younis as a "dangerous war zone." The military said it had evacuated civilians from the area and that "the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review." What do we know about the incident? Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty when she ran home and found her family's house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatrics department told the Associated Press. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar drove his wife to work. "Just minutes after returning home, a missile struck their house," he said, adding the father was "in intensive care." Farra said that the couple's only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after the strike. The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old.
Al Jazeera
25-05-2025
- Al Jazeera
These are the latest child victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza
These are the latest child victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza NewsFeed These are the latest child victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza Children are bearing the brunt of Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Here are some of the tragic stories of the most recent victims.
Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Peace talks are just optics, says widower after Russian drone attack
When the doctors at Okhmatdyt children's hospital wake one young patient from his medically induced coma, he will discover he has lost his left eye to Russian shrapnel. He will find his face, lacerated by the shards of a suicide drone, has been stitched back together and he will struggle to eat because of the pain caused by a hole in his tongue. When he reaches out for his mother for comfort he will realise she has been taken from him for ever. Mark Yefimenko, 4, and his mother, Anna, 27, are victims of Russia's biggest drone onslaught since the war began. Launched on Sunday, the day before President Trump's latest call to President Putin, at least 273 Russian long-range drones, mostly Iranian-designed Shaheds, hit
