An “extraordinary” trial with regard to the number of victims, the trial of Joël Le Scouarnec opens this Monday, February 24, 2025 in France on Monday before the Morbihan Criminal Court in Vannes. The former surgeon is accused of rape and sexual assault on 300 young patients, mostly minor, hospitalized between 1989 and 2014, undoubtedly the biggest pedocriminal affair judged in France. These children, sometimes unconscious at the time of the facts, endured heavy trauma. Violence which is added to that of a trying legal proceedings, from the discovery of the facts to the organization of the trial.
Victims under anesthesia, others perfectly aware at the time of the facts. Their common point: repression, the absence of memories or only a few scraps, but a tormented adult life. “” Nervous breakdown, anorexia, sexual disorders, the difficulty of procreating “Explains Francesca Satta, lawyer for ten civil parties:” These are reminiscences of things that come back to the surface and that revealed what they had been able to undergo. »»
What some victims have undergone is traumatic amnesia. A well -known memory disorder of psychologists and Laura Morin, director of The Association L’Enfant Bleuwhich formed a civil party: “ A child -lived trauma will have an impact on his entire adult life, since even if there are not necessarily memories, in any case the body, he remembers it. The association received victims of Joël Le Scouarnec and accompanied them with psychologists.
“Institutional violence”
Psychologists are, on the other hand, what was lacking at the very beginning of the procedure, when it was often the gendarmes who teach the victims that their first names appear in the intimate notebooks of the surgeon. “” Institutional violence is violence that has been added to what they have undergone “Consulates Marie Grimaud, who defends around forty civil parties:” For these victims, it was an extremely brutal announcement. I have customers who tell me to find themselves haggard, in a state of amazement on the sidewalk, alone, not knowing how to expose it to their loved ones and it is the beginning of a path and wandering and complete abandonment . »»
In a column, a few days ago, the victims represented by Marie Grimaud protests the length of the investigation, of the endless expectation, of the strong media coverage of the case, ” Customers who have found journalists in their garden », Institutional violence which continued until the organization of the trial. A complex organization for the small court of Vannes, which had no choice but to rent an annex, 300 meters from the courtroom, to accommodate all the victims. “” It is making them invisible to the eyes of the courtyard, Combines Marie Grimaud, It is to make them invisible to the eyes of Mr. Le Scouarnec and his lawyers. This violence is unacceptable. »»
The lawyer is convinced of this, several of her customers would now be discouraged at the idea of testifying at the helm: ” I have three, four calls per week, during which customers tell me that they will not succeed, that they do not feel in their place, that they do not feel legitimate. This is the first time that I have to chat with my clients so much about their legitimacy. Whether they feel legitimate or not, a trial opens despite everything, so that all the victims close the chapter Le Scouarnec.
Read tooLe Scouarnec affair: an “extraordinary” trial for the small jurisdiction of Vannes