Education didn't make this Surgeon a better person.

France prepares for trial of surgeon accused of abusing anaesthetised children. Joel Le Scouarnec, 73, is accused of assaulting or raping 299 children – the majority former patients of his – between 1989 and 2014, mostly in Brittany. He is set to go on trial this month in the largest child abuse trial in French history.

In the early 2000s, an FBI alert to the French authorities that Le Scouarnec had been accessing child abuse websites only resulted in a four-month suspended sentence with no obligation to follow medical or psychological treatment. Prosecutors never shared this information with the medical authorities and there were no consequences for Le Scouarnec, who continued in his role as a surgeon, often operating on children and managing their aftercare.

A staggering number of opportunities to stop the former surgeon from having contact with children appear to have been missed or rejected. All his colleagues knew, and none of them did anything. There were many circumstances which meant he could have been stopped; he wasn't, and the consequences are tragic. Members of his own family also knew of Le Scouarnec's paedophilia but failed to stop him, it is claimed.

Le Scouarnec, once a respected small-town surgeon, has been in jail since 2017, when he was arrested on suspicion of raping his nieces, now in their 30s, as well as a six-year-old girl and a young patient. Le Scouarnec was arrested when the six-year-old victim told her parents that he had assaulted her. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

After his arrest, police searched his home and found child-sized sex dolls, more than 300,000 child abuse images, and thousands of pages of meticulously compiled diaries in which Le Scouarnec is alleged to have logged assaults he carried out on his young patients over 25 years. Le Scouarnec is facing more than 100 rape charges and more than 150 charges of sexual assault.

A huge number of his alleged victims were under the effect of anaesthetics when it is claimed the assaults took place, they had no recollection of the events and were shocked to be contacted by police and told their names alongside graphic descriptions of abuse in Le Scouarnec's diaries. Lawyer Francesca Satta, who represents several alleged victims, told the BBC that among her clients are "the families of two men who did remember, and who ended up taking their own lives."

Most of the alleged victims were people who had no memories of being raped or assaulted, and who were living ordinary lives before police contacted them. "Today, many of these people are understandably very shaken," Ms Olivia Mons of France Victimes Association said.

The first court proceedings heard claims that several members of Le Scouarnec's family had been aware since the mid-1980s of his disturbing behaviour towards children, but did not intervene. His ex-wife has denied knowing what her husband and father of their 3 children allegedly did until he was arrested.

Le Scouarnec – a medical professional and a lover of opera and literature – had long been the pride of his middle-class family. He was a respected small town medical practitioner for many years, which may have afforded him a significant degree of protection in the workplace. "A huge degree of dysfunction allowed Le Scouarnec to commit his deeds," lawyer Frederic Benoist told the BBC.

As the city of Vannes prepares to host the trial, 3 lecture halls in a former university building have been made available to accommodate the hundreds of alleged victims, their legal representatives and families. The trial starts on 24th February, 2025 and is due to last until June 2025.

NEWS SOURCE:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyz0v97257o