The closed session ordered at the trial of the “Jonzac surgeon”

• 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.

At the Assize Court of Charente-Maritime, in Saintes

The public and journalists were still gathering their things when the president of the Charente-Maritime Assize Court insisted on clarifying: "It is not a lack of courage. It's just the strict application of the law… ”Isabelle Fachaux ordered, this Friday, that the trial of Joël Le Scouarnec be held behind closed doors, barely 45 minutes after its opening in Saintes.

Suspected of having abused at least 349 children in the past thirty years, the man whom the media had first dubbed "Jonzac's surgeon" appears, since this Friday, for a first case of rape and sexual assault on minors. In this case, he is accused by four victims: a patient whom he allegedly abused during an operation for acute pancreatitis, two of his nieces and his former little neighbor when he lived in Jonzac.

#Jonzac #LeScouarnec: Small video of the courtroom (empty) pic.twitter.com/7X5ptmslSS

"Publicizing the proceedings could give him pleasure ..."

The Complainants disagreed on the appropriateness of requesting, as article 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows, the closed session for this trial. “Given the age of my clients. The nature of the facts. And out of modesty because I am going to have to show photos, I demand the total camera, had attacked Delphine Driguez, lawyer of the practitioner's two nieces. Above all, Joël Le Scouarnec is a pedophile. But he is also an exhibitionist. For me, he is very proud of it. And I think that the publicity of the debates could give him some pleasure ... "

#Jonzac #Scouarnec: The lawyer indicates that she will moreover request the reclassification of the acts of sexual assault in rape, taking into account the photos appearing in the file.

Bald forehead, pursed lips and slightly arched back, the 69-year-old accused, who faced him in the box, did not react to this evocation. His lawyer, Thibaut Kurzawa, took care of answering for him. Denouncing "the death threats" and "the almost daily insults", he explained that his client wanted to speak during the hearing and that, for that, it would be more serene if the debates were held away from the public and the media.

Joël Le Scouarnec should express himself, according to his lawyer

Only a few child protection associations and Francesca Satta, the lawyer for the parents of the little neighbor, did not agree. Claiming the right to "break the omerta", the latter demanded that the trial be held in private. "When I say I want the public, I mean people who are interested in what happened. I think that the debates will allow us to know how it could have lasted thirty years… ”

Perhaps, but it will be done without the journalists and the few people who had made the trip. At the start of the hearing, the practitioner confined himself to declining his identity in a white voice. If his lawyer is to be believed, he should say more in the coming days. The verdict of this trial is expected Tuesday evening. Joël Le Scouarnec faces a sentence of twenty years in prison.

He also knows that the investigation into the many other victims he is accused of having made is continuing, and will no doubt provide an opportunity for a new debate on the advisability of judging his story in camera.

Our file on the Le Scouarnec case

Justice

Le Scouarnec affair: Should the trial of Jonzac's surgeon be public?

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Le Scouarnec affair: First meeting at the conference for the “Jonzac surgeon”

• Poitou-Charentes
• Child
• Justice
• Rape
• Joël Le Scouarnec
• Sexual assault
• Surgery
• Trial