On May 2, 2017, surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec was arrested, accused of sexual exhibitionism and then rape by his 6-year-old neighbor in Jonzac (Charente-Maritime). An extraordinary pedophilia affair, probably the largest in France, begins. At his home, the gendarmes take away dolls, one of which has chains on their wrists, drawings of naked children, child pornography photos (300,000 will say the investigation) and computer files.
Joël Le Scouarnec, 69, will appear from March 13 to 17 for rape and / or touching these four victims before the assizes in Saintes (Charente-Maritime). A first step. Because the investigation, fed by the doctor's digital archives, gave birth to a larger monster, which required the opening of another procedure, conducted in Lorient, to identify other victims.
Methodical
Since the media coverage of the case this summer, speech has been freed and complaints are crumbling on the investigators' desk: 246 to date on a total of 349 potential victims. Many learned from the gendarmes that they were mentioned in the surgeon's archives. The task is immense for the judicial institution, painful also for the victims confronted with the search for memories diluted or disappeared in time.
As elements of the investigation reveal, Le Scouarnec, a good professional, an opera lover, methodically wrote down his long drift. First, there are two lists, entitled "Vulvettes" and "Quéquettes", listing the names of 250 girls and boys between 1984 and 2006 associated with descriptions of alleged assaults: cunnilingus, caresses, digital or rectal penetrations. But he forbids any penetration with his sex, note the investigators.
Personal diary
There are also these diaries, on thousands of pages. From 1990 to 2017, the daily story of possible ill-treatment of young patients, sometimes asleep, in their bedroom, in the operating room or in the recovery room, during the career of the surgeon, who worked in the Center and West , at Loches, Vannes and Lorient (Morbihan), Quimperlé (Finistère) and at Jonzac, his last post.
"He takes advantage of every opportunity available to him", analyze the gendarmes in July 2017, the operating mode is repetitive: take advantage of a moment when the child is alone and commit sexual violence under cover of medical gestures, such as after an appendectomy. "You have to be patient and count on luck," writes the digestive surgeon in his journal.
Bubble
He knows he has to be extra vigilant. On April 10, 2004, he wrote: “While smoking my morning cigarette, I thought about the fact that I am a big pervert. I am at the same time an exhibitionist (…) voyeur, sadist, masochist, scatologist, fetishist (…), pedophile. And I am very happy about it ”. But in December 2004, the gendarmes arrested him at his home near Vannes. His bank card left traces on a Russian child pornography site and his name went back to the FBI.
In 2005, he was sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence for possession of child pornography, without being prohibited from practicing. His wife leaves but the couple, who has three sons, remains linked, particularly financially. Noises eventually arrive in the medical institution. In 2006, a psychiatrist from Quimperlé, Thierry Bonvalot got wind of this conviction and alerted the hospital to its "dangerousness". "The director did not inform me of the consequences" of this report, said the doctor.
In his last years at Jonzac (2008-2017), the surgeon lived trapped in his "bubble", only going out to work. Confined to his living room, he spends his naked time, in front of his camera or his computer, downloading child pornography content, alone with a bottle of whiskey and dolls. And he also observes for months the little neighbor of the house next door.
Justice
Surgeon accused of pedophilia in Jonzac: Family of victim claims public trial
Society
Surgeon accused of pedophilia in Jonzac: The hospital, where Joël Le Scouarnec worked, suspends an anesthesiologist
- Joël Le Scouarnec
- Pedophilia
- Trial
- Justice
- Child pornography