Beginning this Monday, the Morbihan criminal court will adjudicate the case of Joël Le Scouarnec, alleged to be France’s most prolific paedophile, charged with aggravated rape and aggravated sexual violence against 299 victims, predominantly minors. The 74-year-old former surgeon, having perpetrated these crimes over a span of 30 years with total impunity, faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
Joël Le Scouarnec has “admitted his participation” in most of the rapes and sexual assaults of which he is accused, as stated by Lorient prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger, who will oversee the case in Vannes.
In October 2005, Joël Le Scouarnec received a four-month suspended prison term from the Vannes Criminal Court for possessing child pornography photos.
In 2020, he received a 15-year prison term for the rape and sexual abuse of four juveniles and subsequently filed an appeal, which he retracted a year later.
He was ultimately accused in this second instance with rape and sexual assault involving over 300 possible victims.
The trial, commencing on 24 February and deemed “extraordinary,” is anticipated to endure for four months and necessitated the construction of a specially designed courtroom. Due to a lack of space, the city is offering the facilities of its old law faculty, situated about 300 meters from the courthouse. One of the amphitheatres in the structure will be designated for the civil parties and their families. They will have the capability to observe the proceedings in real-time.
This is unequivocally the most significant paedophile criminal case in France, or at the very least, the case involving the highest number of victims sexually attacked or raped by a single individual. “The magnitude of the subsequent trial corresponds to the magnitude of this case,” remarked a judicial participant in the French publication Le Figaro.
Joël Le Scouarnec will face trial for 111 counts of rape and 189 counts of sexual assault, with the charges exacerbated by his exploitation of his role as a physician.
A total of 158 male victims and 141 female victims were documented. On the eve of the trial’s commencement, 202 civil parties were enrolled. The mean age of the victims at the time of the incidents was 11.
The statute of limitations has lapsed for the doctor’s 15 patients, particularly the four victims from the initial segment of the 2020 trial, allowing for a form of “double penalty”.
The trial is anticipated to incur costs of almost €3 million for the Ministry of Justice, encompassing facilities reconfiguration, procurement and installation of technical equipment, recruitment of new personnel, and reimbursement of victims’ travel expenses. An estimated €1.2 million has been expended to date.
Several proceedings will occur in private during the trial. A single civil party’s request to close the trial to the public would suffice for the full Joël Le Scouarnec trial to proceed without media or public presence.
This trial is atypical as the victims were oblivious to the abuses they endured. The facts were uncovered decades later during their interrogation by the gendarmes. A significant number of the victims experienced traumatic amnesia, which partially or entirely obliterated their recollection of the physician.
During the trial, the civil parties will receive assistance from the France Victimes 56 association, which will send a legal expert and a psychotherapist to help them. A legal aid dog has been provided to individuals required to testify in court.
To guarantee the tranquilly of the civil parties, who will encounter several journalists, a system of necklaces—green or red—will be implemented to signify their want to be interviewed or videotaped.
Approximately 300 journalists from around one hundred media organisations have received accreditation for the trial, however many will not attend in full.
Sixty-five solicitors will be available to support the victims during the proceedings, which will occur exclusively in the afternoon.
At the age of 66 upon his arrest on 2 May 2017, Joël Le Scouarnec was a prominent digestive surgeon in the commune of Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), devoid of any suspicion. His career extended over 36 years; he had just retired the day prior to his arrest.
The lawsuit commenced with declarations made by a six-year-old child residing in Jonzac. In April 2017, she informed her parents that her neighbour, a 66-year-old physician at the time, had indecently exposed himself to her prior to sexually abusing her.
During the investigation, the gendarmes discovered over 70 dolls, representing both males and girls, ranging from infants to 12 years of age. Joël Le Scouarnec had affixed dildos to some of them. His residence contained an array of sexual paraphernalia, wigs, and child pornography.
Hard drives containing almost 300,000 papers, some of which are exceedingly violent, were discovered beneath his mattress.
The physician created photomontages using images of minors, along with other evidence of sadomasochistic, scatophilic, and zoophilic actions involving his pets.
The investigators discovered what they referred to as the surgeon’s “black notebooks”. These are handwritten notebooks in which Joël Le Scouarnec composed child pornography narratives over a span of thirty years.
Joël Le Scouarnec perpetrated his offences while on duty. He served as a contract surgeon and, over his career, was employed in approximately fifteen hospitals, including those at Lorient (56), Quimperlé (29), Le Mans (72), Nantes (44), Saint-Brieuc (22), and Flers (61). He claimed the most victims at the Sacré-Coeur clinic in Vannes, where he worked regularly from 1994 to 2003. Likely exceeding two hundred.
He perpetrated his pedocriminal crimes against both females and males. Some were but a few months old, while others were fully grown adults. Among the 299 victims identified by the Lorient public prosecutor’s office, 256 were under the age of 15 at the time of the offence.
The initial fortnight of the trial will focus on the defendant’s character assessment, the advancement of the inquiry, and the testimonies of individuals in his proximity.
His ex-wife, who asserts she never suspected her husband of being a paedophile despite his prior conviction for possession of child pornography in 2005, is anticipated to testify starting Tuesday.
The Morbihan criminal court, presided over by Judge Aude Buresi, will examine the sexual attacks perpetrated by Joël Le Scouarnec in chronological sequence.
Approximately forty civil parties have previously invoked their right to a private hearing.
On 19 May, the court will receive testimony from several former high-ranking hospital and health authorities. Confidential records reviewed by the French news agency AFP indicate that some individuals were aware of the surgeon’s initial conviction as early as 2006, yet his career remained unimpeded.
The physician continued his practice for an additional eleven years, persistently engaging in purported acts of sexual violence against the youngsters he treated.
Following a day dedicated to the psychiatric evaluation of the accused (20 May), the 63 solicitors representing the civil parties will present their closing arguments (22-28 May), succeeded by the closing arguments on 2 June and the defence on 3 June.
Joël Le Scouarnec will deliver his concluding statements to the court on the same day or the subsequent day, prior to deliberations from 4 to 6 June, with a verdict rendered the following day.
If you or anyone you know have been affected by the people highlighted in this article, then please report those individuals to the Police on 101 (999 if an emergency) or visit their online resources for further details of the options for reporting a crime. You can also make a report at Crimestoppers should you wish to be completely anonymous. There is help available on our support links page.