French surgeon to go on trial for almost 300 sex assaults

NANTES, France: When police in western France searched surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec’s home after he raped his 6-year-old neighbour in 2017, they found a cache of sex dolls, wigs and child pornography.They said they also discovered electronic diaries that appeared to detail nearly three decades of rapes and sexual assaults on hundreds of his young patients in hospitals across the region.

In 2020, Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of his child neighbour, as well as his two nieces and a 4-year-old patient. However, the investigation continued into the alleged victims logged on his files. Prosecutors eventually charged him with the aggravated rape and sexual assault of 299 people, many of whom were children, and some of whom were anesthetized when the abuse allegedly took place.

On February 24, Le Scouarnec, 74, will face trial on those charges in the Breton town of Vannes, in France’s largest ever child sexual abuse case. Prosecutors say Le Scouarnec has admitted to investigators many of the accusations he faces. His lawyers declined to comment ahead of the trial. Le Scouarnec’s case will raise tough questions for France’s publicly run healthcare system, victims and rights groups say.