A former French surgeon accused of raping or sexually abusing 299 sufferers, most commonly kids below his care, over the process just about 3 many years is ready to face trial in France on Monday.
Joël Le Scouarnec, now 74, is ready to face trial over 4 months in Vannes, Brittany. The trial will read about alleged rapes and different abuses dedicated between 1989 and 2014 in opposition to 158 males and 141 ladies. The alleged sufferers’ reasonable age was once 11.
Le Scouarnec, who will face loads of alleged sufferers all over the trial, does now not deny the allegations, regardless that he says he does not have in mind the entirety. Many alleged sufferers say they’ve no reminiscence of the attacks, having been subconscious on the time.
The case was once introduced into the highlight in 2017 when a 6-year-old neighbor accused Le Scouarnec of touching her over the fence that separated their houses.
FRENCHMAN FOUND GUILTY IN HORRIFIC RAPE TRIAL THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
Investigative recordsdata within the Vannes courthouse, western France, are observed on Monday, the hole day of the trial of French surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec. (AP Photograph/Thomas Padilla)
Investigators searched his house and exposed greater than 300,000 pictures, 650 pedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video recordsdata, in line with investigation paperwork.
The investigation additional discovered that the surgeon described himself in his notebooks as a pedophile and printed main points of his movements. Investigators tracked down alleged sufferers whose names had been discovered written within the notebooks.
A view presentations the doorway of the Hopital de l. a. Villeneuve prior to the hole of the trial in Vannes. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)
Le Scouarnec was once convicted if that’s the case in 2020, in conjunction with the rape and sexual attack of his two nieces once they had been kids within the Nineteen Eighties and 90s, and a 4-year-old affected person. He was once sentenced to fifteen years in jail.
Amélie Lévêque, some of the alleged sufferers named within the notebooks, was once 9 years previous on the time of her surgical operation in 1991. When talking concerning the revelations just lately, she stated she recalled little concerning the operation, even though she remembered “a surgeon who was once fairly imply” following the process, noting that she “cried so much.”
Amelie Leveque, an alleged sufferer of French surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec, speaks to media at the opening day of the trial, outdoor the Vannes courthouse, western France, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photograph/Thomas Padilla)
She described being contacted over the invention of her identify within the notebooks.
FRENCH GIRL, 11, FOUND DEAD NEAR SCHOOL, MURDER INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY
“That was once the start of the solutions to a life-time of questions, after which it was once the start of the descent into hell,” Lévêque advised public broadcaster France 3. “I felt like I had misplaced keep an eye on of the entirety. I wasn’t loopy, however now I needed to face the reality of what had took place.”
“I fell right into a deep melancholy. … My circle of relatives attempted to assist, however I felt totally by myself,” she stated.
Le Scouarnec was once up to now convicted in 2005 of possessing and uploading kid sexual abuse subject material and sentenced to 4 months of suspended jail time. Regardless of that conviction, he was once appointed as a sanatorium practitioner the next 12 months.
Le Scouarnec faces as much as twenty years in jail if convicted in this trial, on best of 15 years he has been serving after being discovered to blame in 2020 of rape and sexual attack of youngsters.
The Related Press contributed to this file.
