The former surgeon recognized his guilt for all the facts alleged against him during his trial. All the victims of which he mentioned in his notebook were, however, not found. An investigation is open.
This is a significant step for the 299 identified victims of Joël Le Scouarnec. The former surgeon recognized, before the criminal court of Morbihan, the facts of rape and sexual assault on 299 victims, during the hearing of Thursday, March 20. A first since the start of the trial on February 24. These confessions were made through one of his lawyers, Me Maxime Tessier, who claims to have asked him if he recognized that the people mentioned in his notebooks were “all potential victims of his actions, and he said yes”. “Then I asked him if he recognized that the 299 facts prosecuted were offenses and he said yes,” continued the council reports Release.
This recognition of the facts represents a “turning point”, according to Me Tessier. It must be said that so far, the accused had only recognized the facts on a case -by -case basis, as they arrived in the debates, when reading his notebooks. As a reminder, Joël Le Scouarnec had a long series of notebooks, seized by the investigators, in which he meticulously recorded the abuse he suffered from his victims, often minor.
“A duty of truth”
But how to explain this change of attitude on the part of the accused? He explained, Thursday, March 20, before the court to be “in a duty of truth”. A reversal rather well received by the victims: “Recognition is a crucial step to allow the victims to move forward, and it is good that she arrives at this stage of the trial”, reacted Frédérique Giffard, who represents fifteen civil parties in Vannes. “I think he ended up understanding, listening to the civil parties parading at the helm for ten days, that he was not going to be able to keep his posture which was to still challenge the facts in certain cases,” continued the lawyer, who added that “the civil parties that will be heard from next week will be much more serene, I imagine, in particular the perspective of their hearing, assault on instruction “.
Another survey is open
Although the 74 -year -old has recognized assaults and even rape on the 299 identified victims, the investigators have not yet found all the possible victims. So, justice opened, Thursday, March 20, a new survey for “sexual assault and rape”, to identify these: “Despite the investigations carried out, the strong media coverage of the case, meetings and organized communications, it is still possible (…) that certain victims could, still, be identified,” said the public prosecutor’s office. Some of the victims whose names were found in the famous notebooks “could not, still, be identified, interviewed, refused to be, were not manifested, either abroad or in another situation of impediment,” detailed the public prosecutor’s office.