Court illustration. - M.Libert / 20 Minutes

  • The parents of the little girl who started the “Jonzac surgeon” case demand that the trial scheduled for March in Saintes be public and not in camera as it is likely to be.
  • The sixty-year-old will be tried for acts of assault and / or rape on four minors, whom he partially recognizes while denying the rapes.
  • Parallel investigations from notebooks discovered at his home during the searches uncovered 349 other potential victims.

While the trial is likely to be held behind closed doors next March in Saintes, in Charente-Maritime, the parents of the little girl who denounced in 2017 the actions of her neighbor, the "surgeon from Jonzac", explain to the Journal du Sunday they want a public hearing.

"Why should we hide? (…) If she hadn't spoken, this surgeon would still be active. We will fight to make it public, ”the girl's parents, Laura T. and Jérôme L., told the JDD on Sunday, testifying for the“ first time ”with“ uncovered faces ”.

Four minor civil parties

Incarcerated since 2017, ex-surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 69, must answer from March 13 to 17 before the assizes of Charente-Maritime in Saintes, rape and / or sexual assault on four young victims. But the trial is likely to be held behind closed doors if the civil parties, who were all minors at the time of the events, request it. The facts, partially recognized by the surgeon, concern his neighbor of Jonzac, two nieces and a patient, over a period of 30 years. He denies the rapes.

After the rape complaint of the young neighbor, then aged 6, in April 2017, the investigators had discovered at the surgeon's home intimate notebooks in which he described attacks and had recorded nearly 200 names of children.

On the basis of these notebooks, a procedure separate from the first four cases of assault was opened in 2019 to try to determine whether these writings describe proven abuse, or whether it is mere "fantasies", as hammered the surgeon's lawyer.

"She freed the floor"

The investigations have since made it possible to identify 349 potential victims of the surgeon during almost 30 years of career in central and western France, indicated at the end of December the prosecutor's office of Lorient, which had then registered 197 complaints, most in Brittany .

“She led the way and freed the floor. A six-year-old girl brought down the biggest pedophile in history, "say the parents, while deploring late psychological support for their family.

They hope soon for "answers", relatives of the surgeon but also of the Order of Doctors whom they accuse of having turned a blind eye to the pedophile inclinations of Joël Le Scouarnec. “There are a lot of questions, we want answers. About him, his wife, the doctors. We will not let go of anything, ”they say.

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Surgeon accused of pedophilia: Investigators have identified 349 potential victims

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  • Poitou-Charentes
  • Trial
  • Justice
  • pedophilia