Former 74 -year -old surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec is tried from this Monday and for four months for pedophile acts committed against 299 victims according to a well -oiled operating mode.
Joël Le Scouarnec in court. This Monday, February 24, 2025, opens before the Criminal Court of Morbihan for a period of four months the trial of the former surgeon. The septuagenarian is prosecuted for aggravated rapes and aggravated sexual violence on 299 victims, crimes committed for thirty years with impunity.
As a reminder, the 74-year-old man was sentenced to fifteen years in criminal imprisonment in 2020 for sexual abuse on minors by the Charente-Maritime Assize Court. Her 6 -year -old neighbor had denounced him, a victim of rape. He also violated a niece, and sexually assaulted a young patient and another niece. In his second trial which starts this Monday and qualified as the most important in terms of pedocrime in France, Joël Le Scouarnecincurs a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. 65 lawyers, 470 journalists, an entire amphitheater intended for the public, a second to the civil parties … The audience which is held in the former law faculty of Vannes promises to be extraordinary.
Acts committed in the hospital, out of sight
The former medecin will be tried for facts perpetrated between 1989 and 2014 in hospitals in the west of France, mainly in Brittany. If he held up to date a notebook, in which precise information on his victims were written, as well as the abuse inflicted under the guise of medical gesture, it is this last detail that challenges. In very detailed writings, an operating mode is obvious. His heinous acts were committed in the hospitals, out of sight.
These are first of all sexual touching carried out under the cover of medical acts. Gestures committed when his patients were anesthetized, without having the possibility of reacting.“The victims of the time were asleep and sedated. They were not able to perceive the facts and nor to denounce them. I also observe that Mr. Scouarnec stressed the stealth of his acts and the concealment strategies which were his, “said Lorient Stéphane Kellenberger’s prosecutor on October 7, 2024. An odious trick used several times by the doctor.
In total, the former surgeon exercises in around fifteen establishments in the West. Lorient, Quimperlé, Le Mans, Nantes, Saint-Brieuc … According to information from France 3 Brittany, it is in a Vannet clinic, that of the Sacred Heart, that he will make the most victims. More than 200 between 1994 and 2003. Here too, the operating mode is the same. He benefits from the vulnerability of his patients, often visiting appendicitis. The average age of its victims is 11 years according to the Lorient prosecutor’s office.
“We trust his doctor”
To take action, Joël Le Scouarnec takes care to end up alone with his victims. Out of the question of committing these gestures in operating room, but rather in the patient’s room, quiet, when young children for there are almost asleep, or too weak to have the slightest reaction, if a reaction is Possible at this age against a doctor who can appear impressive and holding authority.
For some victims, awake at the time of the crimes committed, they indicate that they have noticed anything. The doctor’s gestures were perceived as real medical acts. “Me, he did this to me during a medical auscultation and with the eyes of a little girl, we trust his doctor,” said one of his victims for France 3 Brittany.“My mother asked me if I wanted to file a complaint. I said no. Joël was on a pedestal and I already felt pretty guilty like that. I wanted to forget,” said a second victim to France Info . In the writings of the 74 -year -old man, he describes caresses several times, masturbations of little boys, anal and vaginal penetrations with his fingers.
Each act is its report
In a well -oiled operating mode, he takes care to note, for each victims, very specific information in his “black notebooks”, for example entitled “My pedophile letters: patient name, age, domicile, hospital, date and description of Facts committed. For each victim, his information was noted by the surgeon. even said “I love you”.
“While smoking my morning cigarette, I thought about the fact that I am a great pervert. I am both exhibitionist […] Voyeur, sadistic, masochist, scatological, fetishist […]pedophile. And I am very happy, “we can, for example, read on an extract from your notebook, dated April 10, 2004.