Latest news with #pedophilia
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Third 'pedophile' grilled by cops over missing Alisa, 15... as depraved messages emerge
A third pedophile was grooming a teen girl days before she disappeared from her school without a trace, police allege. Alisa Petrov, 15, has been missing since April 21 when she ran away to meet a different alleged pedophile after being dropped off at school. The teenager exchanged graphic sexual messages and nude photos with the men for months using a secret iPad she hid in her dresser. Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, from Miami and William Taylor Glines, 37, from Texas City, Texas, both face serious child sexual abuse charges. A third man, Samuel Mitchell, 41, who lived in Herriman, Utah, only streets away from Alisa's home in South Jordan, on the edge of Salt Lake City, is now under investigation. Police allegedly found perverted messages between the pair on Alisa's iPad, exchanged through Discord and Snapchat, and filed for a search warrant. Alisa asked Mitchell to 'kidnap' her while she was on a family ski trip, and revealed she was running away from home two days before she went missing. 'IM RUNNING AWAY, please don't contact me,' she wrote at 12.34am on April 19, the search warrant alleged. Messages between Alisa and Mitchell included her telling him she wanted to be a vlogger when she turned 18, but also allegedly contained graphic descriptions of sexual acts he wanted to do to her when they met in person. She was only saved from this fate when Mitchell told her they couldn't meet, the affidavit explained. 'Sorry I'm really sick,' Mitchell allegedly wrote. Alisa replied: 'So we meeting?' Mitchell responded: 'If you want to hear me sneezing and coughing and getting you sick, plus I wouldn't be much fun.' South Jordan Police requesting the search warrant alleged Alisa called Mitchell 'daddy' and they discussed 'couples twister' and 'sex monopoly' games. Alisa also requested multiple times for Mitchell to 'kidnap her' and eight days before she ran away sent him locations where she would be, the affidavit alleged. One of these was the Alta Ski Resort, where Alisa was on a trip with her parents the weekend before she disappeared - returning only hours earlier. Some of the photos her parents Olga and Nikolai released in the hope of finding her were taken on the same ski trip. Alisa returned from a family trip to Alta Ski Resort in Utah only hours before she disappeared. Some of the photos her parents released were taken on the same ski trip Police did not find any sexual images shared between the pair, and Mitchell has not been charged with a crime. However, police wrote in the warrant application that 'there is probable cause that there is evidence of enticement of a minor and exploitation of a minor on this phone'. After Mitchell said he was sick, Alisa instead allegedly arranged to meet Menard in Las Vegas while he was there on a business trip, and from there fly to Los Angeles, then his home in Miami. On April 21, Alisa was dropped off at her school, Canyon Grove Academy, in American Fork, about 32 miles south of Salt Lake City. But instead of going to class, she bought supplies at a nearby gas station and convinced a man there to drive her to the local train station. Alisa got off the train in Provo, about 14 miles south of American Fork, and asked multiple people there to help her get a bus ticket to Las Vegas. Police don't believe she met Menard, but the teenager hasn't been seen since, and no one knows where she went, who she is with, or how much danger she is in. Menard last week was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and three counts of criminal solicitation. Police seized his phone at his home in Miami on April 30, but he was never arrested, even after a search of his device allegedly uncovered disturbing messages. South Jordan Police, which is leading the case, told that Menard was not on the run, but refused to say why he wasn't in custody, despite a no-bail warrant being filed by the Utah Attorney General. Menard's lawyers, Collins Rupp in Bountiful, north of Salt Lake City, did not return calls. Menard, an IT sales executive, grew up in Noblesville outside Indianapolis the youngest of four brothers, then moved to Chicago and finally Miami. But beneath his clean-cut, designer stubbled face was allegedly a depraved desire to sexually abuse young girls. Police detailed in affidavits the disturbing messages between Alisa and Menard dating back to January 17. '[Menard] over the course of several months, corresponded with [the teen] for the purpose of soliciting sex, sodomy, and child sex abuse material from the minor,' the affidavit continued. '[He] discussed in graphic detail his intent to sexually abuse the child. [He] encouraged and engaged with [the teen] all from the state of Florida, where all his substantial ties to the community and resources are.' Glines was arrested in Texas City on May 8 and remains in custody charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted aggravated exploitation of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation. He was also charged by police in Texas with possessing more than 50 child sexual abuse images or videos. He is yet to enter a plea. The probable cause affidavit detailed disturbing conversations between Glines and Alisa, including how he allegedly convinced he to send nude photos and videos. '[Alisa] expresses feeling extremely uncomfortable and anxious sending pictures and photos of herself, to the point it made her want to self-harm,' it alleged. She was so uncomfortable that on one occasion when Glines allegedly threatened to punish her if she refused, she asked for the punishment instead. He told her to beat herself with a piece of wood or a hairbrush as hard as she could, explaining 'I'm a sadist'. 'I'm just saying if the average person knew I was talking to you they'd want to cut my f**king d**k [off],' he said during another conversation. Police have not said if any of the three men knew each other. '[Police] say they cannot guarantee [that Alisa is still alive], but there was no indication that she's not,' Alisa's mother, Olga Petrov, told 'They say they still have some leads... but we have no idea what kind of leads, they're not saying anything.' Olga said she and her husband, Nikolai, were vigilant in protecting their daughter and educated her about the dangers of talking to strangers online. 'We regularly check her phone and there was nothing suspicious. Everything seemed to be normal, just classmates, neighbors,' she said. 'We never thought she could be talking to strangers in this way.' The worried mother hoped Alisa was just staying away because 'I would assume she's really embarrassed.' She said Alisa didn't have much money and that she didn't have a coat, even though it was below 40 degrees on some of nights after she went missing. 'So somebody else is either helping her and we don't know who or where... I'm not suspecting the worst,' Olga said. 'That means she's with somebody else and we don't know if it's a good person or a bad person.' Alisa was very trusting of people and liked to strike up conversations with others in the park while hiking or on family holidays. 'She was always trying to meet people to talk to people, like I mean she was just trusting, and we cautioned her about it all the time to at least to be careful,' her mother said. 'That's just how she is... and they took advantage of her.' Petrov's desperate family is offering a $20,000 reward for anyone with information on her whereabouts. They set up a website with a desperate appeal to the teen, insisting she wouldn't be in trouble if she returned. 'Alisa, if you can see this, please know that we love you, we will always love you. We miss you. All of your friends and our friends are very worried too,' her parents wrote. Police have classified the teen as an endangered runaway. She is described as standing about 5-foot-3 and weighing about 122 pounds. Surveillance footage from the gas station showed her wearing a white shirt with darker lettering on the front.
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.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Health
- Arab News
French court sentences former surgeon to 20 years for raping 299 children
A 74-year-old pedophile and former surgeon who raped hundreds of victims over a period spanning more than two decades was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence on Friday by a French Le Scouarnec was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting 299 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 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 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 of inactionDuring 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 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 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 taboosLe 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 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 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 notebooksNot 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 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 notebooks, which detail the abuse in graphic language, have become central to the prosecution's 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 and emotionlessWhile he offered apologies to some victims, his demeanor 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 neighbor 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.
Globe and Mail
7 days ago
- Health
- Globe and Mail
French court sentences former surgeon to 20 years for raping, sexually assaulting 299 children
A 74-year-old pedophile and former surgeon who raped hundreds of victims over a period spanning more than two decades was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence on Friday by a French court. Joel 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. 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 Joel Le Scouarnec have been the only one in the defendant's box?' prosecutor Stephane 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. 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 Gisele Pelicot, 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. 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. 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. 'Joel 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.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
French Doctor Who Molested Hundreds of Children Is Sentenced
The former surgeon who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 299 people, most of them children, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison by a French court on Wednesday, in what is considered the largest pedophilia case in the country's history. Judge Aude Buresi handed down the sentence from the courthouse in Vannes, a coastal town in Brittany where the majority of the abuse took place. Judge Buresi also barred the former surgeon, Joël Le Scouarnec, from ever practicing medicine or having contact with minors. The trial came amid a growing reckoning in France over sexual abuse, with the numbers of victims reporting to the police surging, cases crowding the courts and new #MeToo movements erupting at a dizzying pace. Many of the victims felt the trial of Mr. Le Scouarnec was drowned out by that chorus and did not cause the public outcry and political responses they had hoped for. Many also said they did not receive the psychological support they needed. 'What we are waiting for is society to understand this could happen to anyone,' said Christine Trouvé, the mother of a victim. A former gastric surgeon, Mr. Le Scouarnec, now 74, committed the sexual abuse from 1989 to 2014, while working in nine clinics and hospitals in western and central France. The victims' average age was 11. Many were sedated or recovering from operations during the abuse, and had no memory of it. The crimes were discovered during a police search of Mr. Le Scouarnec's home, after he exposed himself to a 6-year-old girl living next door and her parents reported him. There, amid cluttered boxes packed with sex toys and dolls, the police found computers and more than two dozen hard drives filled with child sexual abuse imagery, and hundreds of pages of the doctor's personal diaries detailing the sexual abuse he had committed against individual children. They also found two spreadsheets that listed many of the victims' names, ages, addresses and synopses of the abuse they had suffered — sexual assault and rape, mostly related to penetration with fingers. Heading into the trial, Mr. Le Scouarnec, who has since forfeited his right to practice medicine, denied some of the charges, saying that some of his writing had been fantasy and other acts were part of medical procedures. But a month into the trial, he stunned the courtroom by admitting to having done everything he wrote about, and perhaps more. 'For 30 years I acted without any qualms and with a single objective, to commit sexual assaults as often as I could,' he said, standing in the dock where he appeared day after day over three months, often staring blankly at the room. After his confession, the long-anticipated trial took a different turn, shifting its attention to the victims, many of whom had been unaware that they were abused. Now adults, victims spoke about their reaction to the shattering news from the police. Most often summoned to the station without prior warning, they recounted feeling abandoned, left on their own to deal with an intimate crime they did not remember. They described shock, fury, anxiety and feelings of dissociation. 'People need to realize that it was the police who reached out to the victims, and not the other way around,' said Ms. Trouvé. 'It was a double shock.' Some separated from their partners over the revelations. Some experienced depression and stopped working. Two died by suicide. About 100 did not participate in the trial at all. Most of those who did gave their testimony from behind closed doors or sat silently in the courtroom as their cases were examined. Some sent lawyers in their stead. 'I am getting worse, I have been on sick leave since 2024 and I am currently in a psychiatric hospital,' one victim, now a young woman living in Belgium, wrote in a letter that was read aloud by her lawyer. 'I feel very helpless, like I don't have access to what happened to me.' She said she still struggled to identify as a victim. 'I feel like I should take an interest in the trial but I can't,' she wrote. 'Coming here would make it too real.' Few of those who testified agreed to be publicly identified. Large support dogs lumbered between them in an overflow room near the courthouse, where they watched the proceedings on a video screen. As the trial went on, several who had been reluctant to attend began to come forward, sitting together for long hours and forming what Ms. Trouvé called a 'family of struggle.' While many talked about the trauma of the discovery, some said it offered a long-sought-after explanation for their broken childhoods and troubled adolescence that bled into their adult lives. 'Learning about the rape allowed me to understand a lot of things,' a nurse, now 36, told the court. 'Why I felt different. Why I ran away from home when I was 10. Why I was bullied at school. Why I stuttered.' Some victims said the revelations had rocked them just as they were becoming parents, themselves. 'Two months after learning the news from the police, I found out that I was going to be a father for the first time,' said the nurse, his voice breaking. 'I became very afraid of passing it on.' Another man said the news had made him decide against having children himself. Most victims said they now had a hard time trusting doctors. One refused to be sedated for foot surgery, she told the court. And they spoke of the collateral damage to their families, particularly their parents, who often carried their own guilt for not having protected their children from the surgeon, or having ignored the warning signs and even dismissed their children's reports of being touched. One sister cried silently as her brother testified in court. 'Our life became a nightmare,' said the father of a soldier, now 22, who was among Mr. Le Scouarnec's last victims. His wife, who has since died of cancer, never got over the news, he said, tearing up. 'In the evenings she would cry, she repeated the same thing over and over again — that she had been waiting just outside, just a few doors from where it happened,' he told the courtroom. 'That she had told her son, as they took him to the operating room, that everything would be OK.' The few victims who remembered the abuse spoke about second-guessing themselves, not being believed by their parents and internalizing self-doubt. 'I remember a person with glasses and a white coat entering the room in a strange way,' one man told the court. The doctor then asked him to lift his legs, penetrated him with his fingers, and touched his genitals. At the time, he raised the issue with his father, who suggested that it was part of the medical procedure. 'So then I lived with it, telling myself it was normal,' he said, 'but it always stayed in a corner of my head.' He struggled with trust and intimacy, he told the court, chuckling awkwardly. 'Laughter replaced the stutter,' he explained. 'It's a way to go through difficult conversations more easily.' Less than two weeks before the verdict, about 60 of the victims created a collective to bring more attention to the case and demand political responses so that children are better protected from predatory medical practitioners. The trial revealed large cracks in the legal and health administrative bureaucracies that failed to take seriously one clear warning sign: In 2005, Mr. Le Scouarnec was convicted of downloading child abuse imagery and given a four-month suspended sentence by a French court. Still, he was permitted to continue treating children unsupervised until his arrest in 2017. Few victims felt that the disgraced doctor, though admitting to his crimes, fully acknowledged the suffering he had caused. From his perch in the glass dock, Mr. Le Scouarnec delivered the same responses about each case in a flat, emotionless tone. He acknowledged the abuse. But he remembered very few of his victims. 'I ask for your forgiveness,' he repeated mechanically. Patrice Le Normand, a psychiatrist who assessed Mr. Le Scouarnec in 2021, told the courtroom that the risk of him reoffending was 'maximal.' 'For him, they are not others, they are not individuals,' he said. 'They are a collection of names.' A 26-year-old victim confronted Mr. Le Scouarnec from the stand, her body trembling with anger. Her words captured the feelings of many victims in the room. 'You ruined my life,' she shouted. 'Allow me to doubt the sincerity of your apologies for things you don't even remember.'
