- Joël Le Scouarnec, accused of having sexually assaulted hundreds of children, is to be tried this Friday in Saintes (Charente-Maritime), for a first case of rape and sexual assault.
- In this file, the surgeon is accused by a former patient, two of his nieces and his former neighbor, who denounced him.
- Investigators continue to search, in parallel, for his other potential victims, on the basis of a precise list that he has kept for more than thirty years.
It was an evening in December 2016. As often, Doctor Joël Le Scouarnec's only company was his abominable computer files and his diary. "I am a pedophile and will always be ...", he congratulated himself then. He still didn't know that a six-year-old girl - his neighbor in this case - would decide otherwise a few months later.
Suspected of having abused at least 349 children in just over thirty years, this 69-year-old surgeon must appear, as of this Friday, before the Assize Court of Charente-Maritime, in Saintes, for a first record of rape and sexual assault. In this case, he is accused by four victims: two of his nieces, now in their thirties, a patient whom he allegedly abused during an operation for acute pancreatitis when she was only four years old, and his former little neighbor when he lived in Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), therefore.
It was she who allowed his arrest. Coming back from a walk, one evening in April 2017, she points to her neighbor through the whiskers of the garden and says to her father who is accompanying him: "This gentleman, he made me see his dick ..." At that moment- there, Jérôme L. confides that he wanted to “die”. Calmed by his stepfather, he recovered and called the gendarmes.
The double life of Joël Le Scouarnec, accused of pedophilia, examined https://t.co/7RiO1KqYhJ
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) March 7, 2020Documents identifying the victims date by date
A week later, the surgeon was arrested. It was while searching his home that the investigators realized that the case would quickly take on another dimension. Behind the white stone walls of a soulless house, they discovered thousands of atrocious computer documents and lists with evocative names listing, date by date, all the small victims he is suspected of having done when 'he practiced surgery in the hospitals of Loches (Indre-et-Loire), Vannes (Morbihan), Quimperlé (Finistère) or Jonzac (Charente-Maritime).
During the first hearings, the doctor easily evokes his attraction for young minors, whatever their gender. But he denies the facts of rape. He claims that his notebooks contain only the fantasies he projected on young patients, whom he especially encountered in recovery rooms after operations. Today, it seems to have evolved. Incarcerated in solitary confinement for three years, he acknowledges certain acts of sexual assault. “He wants to speak before his judges. He wants to try to understand how he could have done so much harm, ”sums up Thibaut Kurzawa, his lawyer.
The family and medical omerta trial
Beyond the horror of the facts, the main issue of this trial will also be to understand how Joël Le Scouarnec could continue to perform the surgery for so long without being worried. In 2005, during a first trial in Vannes (Morbihan) for possession of child pornography images, he was sentenced to four months suspended prison sentence without obligation to care. A decision which did not seem to have had any consequences on his career.
Joël Le Scouarnec also seems to have taken advantage of the omerta which reigned in a family where the cases of incest were made “from father to son”, according to a source close to the file. “My clients have tried to report the facts they suffered between 2 and 9 years old to their loved ones. But they were told: "It doesn't matter ..." ", deplores Delphine Driguez, the lawyer for the surgeon's two nieces.
Today in their thirties, the two young women are "terrorized" at the idea of coming to testify at the helm of the assize court. They intend to demand the camera. Conversely, the family of the little neighbor wants the debates to be public in order to break the “omerta”. The decision should be made as soon as the hearing opens this Friday morning. The trial is scheduled to last three days. The verdict will be known on Tuesday. Joël Le Scouarnec faces a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment.
Investigation continues for other potential victims
In parallel, the investigators continue to try to find all the potential victims of the surgeon by going up his writings. Directed by the Lorient public prosecutor's office (Morbihan), they had identified 349 as of February 11, of which 246 have already filed complaints. Facts which should be the subject of another trial in the years to come.
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"Joël is inhabited by the devil", testifies the ex-wife of doctor Le Scouarnec
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Surgeon accused of pedophilia: Investigators have identified 349 potential victims
- Assize Court
- Rape
- Justice
- Surgery
- Joël Le Scouarnec
- Trial
- Pedophilia