Retired French surgeon gets maximum 20-year sentence for raping young patients

By Juliette Jabkhiro

VANNES, France (Reuters) -A French court on Wednesday found a retired surgeon guilty of sexually abusing hundreds of young patients in his care, some of whom were children under anaesthetic, handing him the maximum 20-year sentence.

Joel Le Scouarnec's abuse of his patients is considered France's worst case of pedocriminality to go to trial. He stood accused of aggravated rape or sexual assault of 299 victims.

Le Scouarnec had told the court he committed "despicable acts" over a 25-year period whilst he worked as doctor in western France. His trial raised uncomfortable questions for the publicly run healthcare system about how he was allowed to continue abusing his young patients for so long.

Presiding Judge Aude Buresi, whose voice at times appeared to choke with emotion, said Le Scouarnec had preyed on victims at their most vulnerable, including whilst under anaesthesia.

"Your acts were a blind spot in the medical world, to the extent that your colleagues, the medical authorities, were incapable of stopping your actions," the judge told him.

Le Scouarnec is already serving jail time for earlier rape convictions. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of a child neighbour, as well as his two nieces and a four-year-old patient.

The judge barred Le Scouarnec from practicing medicine or having contact with minors. The court also ordered that he be placed on the sex offenders register.

IRREPARABLE HARM

During the trial, Le Scouarnec told the court that he was aware that the harm he had caused was irreparable.

"I owe it to all these people and their loved ones to admit my actions and their consequences, which they've endured and will keep having to endure all their lives," he added.

Maxime Hessier, Le Scouarnec's lawyer, said his client did not intend to appeal, and hoped to make amends with the victims.

"Today, justice has been served," Hessier said.

The judge said she understood many victims hoped Le Scouarnec would never leave jail, but that the law did not allow her to impose a life sentence.

Emmanuelle Martin was 10 when she was abused by Le Scouarnec. Now 36, she said France needed to change its laws so that repeat offenders like him would never walk free again.

"He only got 20 years," she told Reuters after the ruling. "In the United States, he would have got thousands of years. It's unbearable that someone like that can get out."

The trial took place at a time of reckoning around sex crimes in France after the conviction of Dominique Pelicot, who was found guilty in December of drugging his wife unconscious and inviting dozens of men to their home to rape her.

DECADES OF ABUSE

Victims and their families have publicly asked why local and national health authorities failed to stop Le Scouarnec. In 2005, he was convicted of downloading images of child sexual abuse and received a suspended jail sentence, but managed to continue working in public hospitals.

Several dozen victims and rights campaigners gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the verdict, holding a banner made of hundreds of pieces of white paper with black silhouettes, one for each victim. Some of the papers bore a first name and age, while others referred to the victim as "Anonymous."

The extent of Le Scouarnec's abuse was revealed after his re-arrest in 2017 on suspicion of raping his 6-year-old neighbour.

Police discovered electronic diaries that appeared to detail more than two decades of rapes and sexual assaults on young patients in hospitals across the region, as well as a cache of sex dolls, wigs and child pornography.

The trial took place in Vannes, a small town in Brittany.

The local prosecutor, whose office led the investigation into Le Scouarnec, has opened a separate investigation to ascertain if there was any criminal liability by agencies or individuals who could have prevented the abuse.

(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by GV De Clercq, Richard Lough and Bernadette Baum)