The trial of Joël Le Scouarnec, accused of sexual assault on four minors, which has been held since Friday in Saintes (Charente-Maritime) was postponed until October due to the coronavirus crisis. In the meantime, he remains in pre-trial detention.

Like many trials, the one held in Saintes (Charente-Maritime) by Joël Le Scouarnec, accused of sexual assault on four minors, was dismissed in October because of the coronavirus crisis. This was decided on Monday by the Assize Court, the surgeon being kept in pre-trial detention.

This dismissal, without precise date, was ordered "at the request of several lawyers for the civil parties, with which the lawyer for the accused joined and because of the health crisis caused by COVID 19", announced Emilie Abrantes, magistrate responsible for communication at the Poitiers Court of Appeal. "In the meantime, Joël Le Scouarnec remains in pre-trial detention," she said. This decision had become inevitable after the message from the Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet calling to postpone "as far as possible" the assize trials. That of the surgeon, the first part of a very large pedophilia affair, had started on Friday and was to last until Tuesday.

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"We cannot hold this trial under conditions like these"

The lawyers of several civil parties had asked for this dismissal because of fears concerning the health situation of several actors of the file whose testimony was awaited. "It seems that some were in contact with contaminated people and therefore their condition required confinement," explained Yves Crespin, the lawyer for the civil party association L'Enfant bleu, who also asked for new psychiatric assessments. A pregnant lawyer also said on Sunday that she and her office were to be confined after learning that a foreign client was carrying the coronavirus.

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"For health reasons, we cannot hold this trial under conditions like these," confirmed on leaving the courthouse Me Francesca Satta, lawyer for the parents of the little girl whose complaint had triggered the arrest. surgeon in 2017.

The trial rescheduled in the fall, "this will perhaps allow a better calibration of the hearing with the possibility of having perhaps a 4th day of hearing (instead of three), which seems appropriate to us civil parties, to be able to express ourselves freely and ask additional questions. This will also allow us to hear witnesses who could not be present at this hearing, "added the lawyer.