Imprisoned since his indictment two years ago in a case of pedophilia unprecedented in France, the former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec will answer, from March 13 to 17 before the Assize Court of Charentes-Maritimes charges of rape and sexual assault on four victims, minor at the material time. Justice announced Monday to have identified "250 potential victims."
These facts, which he acknowledges partially, date back to the period 1989-2017, during which the surgeon worked in Touraine, in Brittany, and in Charente-Maritime, at Jonzac hospital, the place of his last home. But the list of accusations extends against the former practitioner, who was also stationed in Vannes and Lorient (Morbihan) and Loches (Indre-et-Loire). Because following a complaint, investigators discovered in 2017 at his home mysterious notebooks with nearly 200 names of children.
184 victims wished to file a complaint
After the closure of the first case in March, the court decided to open a procedure separate from the first four cases to find and hear other possible victims. In the end, the gendarmes were able to identify "250 potential victims of non-prescribed facts", an exceptional figure for this type of case, and "184 wished to file a complaint," said Monday in a statement the prosecutor La Rochelle Laurent Zuchowicz. Most were minor at the time of the crime (181). According to the magistrate, 209 people have already been auditioned and "many of them report precise memories".
The survey is concentrated in Brittany, and particularly in Morbihan where 100 potential facts were listed and 23 others in Finistère, the prosecutor again revealed. In total, from April 1991 to January 2014, 159 acts could be related to crimes and / or offenses "within the jurisdiction of the Rennes Court of Appeal".
Wigs and dolls
Faced with the large number of plaintiffs residing in this sector (138 domiciled in the jurisdiction of the Rennes Court of Appeal, including 100 in Morbihan), the prosecutor's office of La Rochelle has relinquished the file for the benefit of the prosecutor's office of Lorient will continue the investigations. The Lorient public prosecutor may decide to entrust a judicial investigation to an investigating judge, which would make it possible to re-indict the doctor.
The "surgeon of Jonzac" was arrested in May 2017 following a complaint for rape filed by the parents of a girl, a neighbor of his house in Jonzac, whose testimony launched the case. Justice found at the time that the man is not unknown: he was already sentenced in 2005 in Vannes for possession of child pornography. By conducting searches at his home, the investigators discover under the floor child pornography images, dolls and wigs.
A carne manuscript that describes pedophile sexual scenes
There is also this manuscript notebook. The surgeon describes sexual scenes with a pedophile character, nearly 200 cases in total. Having become the starting point of the second part, these notebooks list the boys on one side, and the girls on the other with the names and surnames, and sometimes the coordinates, indicated this summer a source close to the investigation.
Investigators have been trying since to determine if these notebooks describe sexual assault or rape that actually occurred, or if it is simple "fantasies", as hammering the lawyer of the gastric surgeon in the Charente part, Thibaut Kurzawa . "The voice of L'Enfant will ensure that there are investigators trained and in number," told AFP the president of the Children's Association Martine Brousse, civil party at trial.
Between the collection of medical records (of victims) and the remaining hearings, including hospital staff, the investigation is still long.