France puts surgeon on trial for abusing 300 children: “I committed atrocious acts”

A renowned surgeon with more than three decades of experience, Joël Le Scouarnec, is facing trial in France. He is accused of raping more than 300 minors during his professional career.

According to El País , local law enforcement found black notebooks in his home. In them, the individual recorded in small notebooks the atrocious acts he had perpetrated against hundreds of minors during his time in the hospitals where he worked.

This happened after a minor, the young daughter of some neighbors, accused him of having touched her private parts from the fence of a house next door.

According to the Spanish media, upon entering the doctor's home, they found around 70 dolls representing boys and girls, including both baby dolls and those representing children under 12 years old.

Le Scouarnec had inserted dildos and sex toys into certain objects. His home was also filled with wigs and photographs related to child pornography.

Under his mattress, authorities found hard drives containing more than 300,000 files, some of which depicted extreme violence, the Spanish newspaper reported.

There were also digital records in which the doctor had recorded daily the names of patients, mostly children, whom he had sexually abused, from inappropriate caresses to acts of rape.

The individual under suspicion committed abuse against minors as young as a few months old, as well as against adults.

On Monday, February 24, the opening session of the trial related to sexual assault took place in France. After spending several hours on the stand, the doctor accused of having abused 300 minors over a period of 25 years said the following:

“If I am here before you it is because I carried out terrible actions when most of you were still just children. Although I can understand and sympathize with the pain that each of these people may have felt, the enormous violence present in my writings, I try in each of the interrogations to recognize that what happened were acts of rape and sexual assault.”

He is also mentioned by El País: “I would like to clarify that, in my eyes, they were not. I am fully aware that these wounds are indelible and irreparable, I cannot go back. I owe it to all these people and their loved ones to assume responsibility for my actions throughout their lives.”

Le Scouarnec is in custody for other cases that were tried in 2020, for which he has already received a sentence that means he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, which is the highest sentence in France for the crime committed.

According to the prosecutor in the case, Stéphane Kellenberger, the average age of the victims was 11 years old. Of the victims, 158 were male and 141 were female. Only 14 were over 20 years old at the time of the attack, and 256 were under 15 years old.

The doctor meticulously recorded the names of the affected people, their age, their address, the hospital where they practiced, as well as the date and description of the events carried out.

He also recounted his emotions while attacking his victims as he addressed them. Describing his crimes in his notebooks, he documented everything with delight, bringing his fantasies to life, the Spanish newspaper reported.

Authorities also discovered a range of aberrant behaviour, including sadomasochistic, scatological and zoophilic practices with his pets. Investigators in charge of the case also found what they called “the black notebooks” , handwritten diaries spanning three decades, containing stories with pedophile content, and bearing titles such as “My pedophile letters”.

The defendant was born in France in 1950 and his first offences related to child abuse were recorded in 1985, becoming a recurring criminal activity. The authorities in charge of the case managed to identify 114 victims, in which the defendant admitted his involvement. His lawyers requested that the cases of 85 of these victims be dismissed, arguing that they had expired; finally, 299 victims were listed in the indictment document, mostly men.

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