(Adnkronos) – He sexually abused hundreds of patients, mostly children, between 1989 and 2014. For this reason, former French surgeon Joel Le Scouarnecè was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Impassive as he listened to Judge Aude Burési deliver the verdict – which was also based on the fact that the victims were sick, vulnerable and sedated – the doctor had admitted his guilt in March.
Le Scouarnec, 74, has been called France’s most prolific pedophile. At the time of sentencing, he was already in prison, having been sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four minors, including two of his nieces. “Twenty years is not much compared to the number of victims in this trial. It is time for the law to change so that we can have more appropriate sentences,” said Francesca Satta, a lawyer for some of the victims.
Since the trial began in Brittany at the end of February, dozens of victims have testified, telling the court how the abuse they suffered as children has affected their lives. In March, during a closed-door session, Le Scouarnec admitted to sexually abusing all 299 victims, many of them while they were under anesthesia or waking up from surgery.
The doctor kept diaries in which he described the assaults in great detail, which allowed police to track down his victims, many of whom had no memory of the abuse they suffered while in Le Scouarnec’s care. “I can no longer look at myself in the same way because I am a pedophile and a child rapist,” he said during a hearing last week. “Many things have been said and I don’t remember everything now. No doubt it will come back to me when I’m in my cell, but what I have witnessed in court is the suffering for which I am responsible,” he said, adding that he did not want nor expect any leniency.
Earlier this month, he also stated that he was “responsible” for the deaths of two victims, whose relatives say committed suicide following the trauma of being sexually assaulted by Le Scouarnec as children. The doctor, present in court every day of the 14-week trial, has apologized several times for his “repugnant” acts.
