French surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec gave a maximum prison sentence for a decades of abuse of hundreds of children

Vannes, France -A French court on Wednesday gave the maximum period of the 20 -year prison to a surgeon who admitted to having sexually abused hundreds of patients, most of them children, for more than two decades. The three months JOEL LE SCOURNEC JUDGMENT74, he has brought to light the scope of his crimes and the suffering of his victims, but also raised doubts of why he did not become more before to stop him.

Le Scouarnec, one of the most prolific -prolific sexual predators in the history of France, was already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for sexually raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.

The 20 -year sentence for aggravated violation transmitted by Judge President Aude Bulesi was the maximum that could be given under the position of aggravated violation in France, where the sentences do not add to individual counts.

Le Scouarnec will not be able to request probation until two thirds of the verdict are served.

“It was taken into account that the acts committed are of particular gravity due to the number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature” of the crimes, said the verdict.

But the Court rejected a rare demand for prosecutors that it should be held in a treatment and supervision center even after any release, citing its “desire to make peace” for what it had done.

The prosecutor said last week that in the United States, where the opposite is the case, Le Scouarnec could have been imprisoned for “2,000 years.”

In this trial, which began in February in Vannes in the western region of Brittany, Le Scouarnec has admitted to sexually assaulting or violating 299 patients, 256 of them under 15 years of age, in hospitals between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anesthesia or waking up after operations.

He was accused of 111 violations and 189 sexual aggressions.

In March, during the trial, Le Scouarnec admitted without any request that he had also sexually abused her granddaughter, although she was not among the alleged victims in the case.

The former surgeon got up and went to the court just after his eldest son, whose name has not been used in the trial, gave evidence.

“This is possibly, almost certainly, the last time I will see my son, because I heard his anger and his anguish,” Le Scouarnec told the court that day. “I respect that anger, is well founded. Yes, I admit abused my granddaughter, her daughter.”

Then he turned to his son and said: “Forgive me.”

The survivors of the surgeon’s abuse organized a protest outside the court in Vannes, holding signs such as “Never Again” and “You accuse you.”

They also had signs representing 355 victims of Le Scouarnec.

That number included “forgotten victims and those whose cases have been dismissed,” said Manon Lemoine, one of the victims.

“We want to be together,” he said.

Another victim, Celine Mahuteau, sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday saying that France has not implemented a national policy “to avoid pedophilia.”

“I am not asking for the court,” Le Scouarnec said in his final statement on Monday.

“Simply grant me the right to become a better person,” he said.

One of the lawyers, Maxime Tessier, had asked the court to take into account the “exceptional” nature of the confession of Le Scouarnec when he admitted all the charges against him.

The retired surgeon also said that he was considered “responsible” for the death of two of his victims: Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021 in what his family says it was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020.

Le Scouarnec documented his crimes, pointing out the names, ages, directions of his victims and the nature of abuse.

In his notes, the doctor described himself as an “important pervert” and a “pedophile.”

“And I’m very happy about that,” he recorded.

Victims and defenders of children’s rights say that the case highlights systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to commit sexual crimes repeatedly.

In 2005, he received a suspended prison sentence of four months after the investigators linked their credit card with the online purchase of child sexual abuse.

But Le Scouarnec was not required to undergo a treatment or were prohibited from practicing medicine.

While Le Scouarnec has forgiven his victims, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically during the weeks of the trial.

“You are the worst massive pedophile that you have ever lived,” said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, who describes Le Scouarnec as an “atomic pump of pedophilia.”

There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact on France they expected.

The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pélicotwho was imprisoned last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to violate his now ex -wife Gisele.

But Health Minister Yannick Neuder said Wednesday that he would work with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to ensure that “we will never meet in a situation in which vulnerable patients and children” are exposed to predators.

“What we want to say is never again,” France Info told the station. “How do we enter this situation?”

In:
• Rape
• Child sexual abuse
• France
• Child abuse