A former surgeon who admitted sexually abusing hundreds of children in France has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has been on trial in one of France’s largest-ever child sex abuse cases.
Most of the victims were abused while under anaesthesia or waking up from operations, with an almost equal number of boys and girls.
He was accused of 300 separate offences – 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults – in more than a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014.
Prosecutors described Le Scouarnec as “a devil in a white coat” and requested the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
He was already serving a 15-year prison sentence for a 2020 conviction for the rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces.
“I’m aware that the harm I’ve caused is beyond repair,” Le Scouarnec said at the opening of his trial in February.
“I owe it to all these people and their loved ones to admit my actions and their consequences, which they’ve endured and will keep having to endure all their lives.”
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How did surgeon carry out abuse unchecked for decades?
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Le Scouarnec kept detailed records of the abuse he inflicted in notebooks and diaries.
He was never investigated during his career, despite being sentenced in 2005 for owning child sexual abuse images.
He was only apprehended after he retired in 2017 when his six-year-old neighbour told her mother he had sexually abused her while he was playing in the garden of her home.
When the police searched Le Scouarnec’s house they found 300,000 indecent photos and videos of children, 70 child-sized dolls and hundreds of notebooks and diaries detailing his acts of abuse.
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Le Scouarnec is already serving a jail sentence, having been found guilty in 2020 of raping and sexually assaulting four young girls.
Dozens of victims and rights campaigners gathered outside the courthouse in Vannes, Brittany, ahead of the verdict with a banner made of hundreds of pieces of white paper with black silhouettes – one for each victim. Some papers featured a first name an age, while others referred to the victim as “Anonymous”.
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The local prosecutor has opened a separate investigation to ascertain if there was any criminal liability by agencies or individuals who could have prevented the abuse.
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