top of page

Surgeon accused of sexually abusing 299 victims over 25 years in France’s largest child abuse case

Writer's picture: Dignity 4PatientsDignity 4Patients

Updated: 3 hours ago

By Alex Croft - Independent - 03.02.2025 - [Joel Le Scouarnec] - [FRANCE]

A former surgeon who allegedly raped and abused hundreds of young patients, many of whom were under anaesthetic, will be the subject of France’s largest-ever child abuse trial later this month.


Joel Le Scouarnec, 73, a once-respected surgeon who worked in regions across France, stands accused of assaulting or raping 299 people in a 25-year reign of terror, usually targeting his child patients while working in Brittany.


The surgeon is accused of detailing his rapes and assaults – and naming his victims – in depraved diaries discovered when his home was searched in 2017. Le Scouarnec has admitted to some but not all charges in the upcoming trial in Vannes, northwest France. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for the rape and sexual assault of four minors – including two of his nieces.


In May 2017, Le Scouarnec was brought to the attention of French authorities for the first time after his six-year-old neighbour in Jonzac, southwestern France, told her mother that Le Scouarnec exposed himself and molested her over the fence.


A thorough search of Le Scouarnec’s home followed, revealing twisted insight into the alleged mass rapist’s mind. Officers discovered detailed diaries chronologically listing and naming his victims over decades, disclosing the assaults which he had allegedly committed or wanted to commit across the several hospitals he had worked in, including in Loches, Vannes, Lorient, Quimperlé, and Jonzac.


Police also found 300,000 images of child abuse images and pornography as they searched his home. Le Scouarnec has claimed his diaries, which in multiple cases stated “I am a paedophile”, only detailed his “fantasies”.


The indictment brought forward by the public prosecutor of Lorient, in Brittany, says the doctor felt “omnipotent” and was “flirting with danger” in a “calculated manner” as he allegedly carried out 300 acts against 299 people, French outlet Le Monde reported.


Le Scouarnec’s strategy was to pass off his sexual violence as a professional gesture and target patients so young that they wouldn’t remember or understand what was happening, investigators said. He would take advantage of children as soon as he was alone with them in the hospital room, they added.


But the doctor would allegedly also target older children in the operating room, often when they were asleep or under anaesthesia, his diaries state.


While some of his former patients have said they remember the surgeon touching them, many have no recollection of the assault as they were under anaesthetic when he abused them, the BBC reported.


These victims were contacted by police and told that their names, alongside graphic descriptions of how they were abused, appeared in Le Scouarnec’s diaries.


Marie, one of the alleged victims who was assaulted in 1996 in the Sacré-Cœur clinic in Vannes, told France Bleu that she is “apprehensive” about the trial.


“On the one hand, it has to be settled so that we can move on once and for all. But when we talk about Le Scouarnec, there are images that come back to me over and over again,” the mother-of-three, who was 10 at the time and is now 38, told the outlet.


Marie says Le Scouarnec came to see her while she was alone in a hospital room. “Not having any knowledge of sexuality at that age, it went unnoticed,” she said. “But my body remembered it very well. I have trauma from that rape. My body is blocked, it no longer trusts.”


Le Scouarnec faces more than 100 charges of rape and 150 of sexual assault at the trial due to start this month.


If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.

 
 

Dignity4Patients Commentary:- Patient exploitation through sexual misconduct can occur under the guise of medical procedures and in various settings. Patients, guardians, and healthcare personnel must remain vigilant and be made aware of the risks. #StopSexualAbuse #ComplaintsReporting #PatientProtection


bottom of page