French court to rule on surgeon who abused children for decades

VANNES - A French court is to give its verdict Wednesday in the trial of a surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of patients over more than two decades, in one of the country's largest child sex abuse cases.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, is already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.

In this trial, which began in February, he has admitted sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients -- 256 of them under 15 -- in hospitals in western France between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations.

Le Scouarnec is charged with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults and is set to emerge as one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history.

The victims have been represented by around 60 lawyers.

"I hope the verdict will be commensurate with the horrors he committed," Amelie Leveque, one of the victims, told AFP.

"But I don't believe it very much."

Victims and child rights advocates say the surgeon's case highlights systemic shortcomings that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes.

Prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger on Friday requested the maximum 20-year sentence for the retired surgeon and also made the rare demand that he should be held in a centre for treatment and supervision even after any release.

'MAJOR PERVERT'

"I am not asking the court for leniency," Le Scouarnec said in his closing statement in Vannes in the western region of Brittany on Monday.

"Simply grant me the right to become a better person," he said.

The verdict, which will be handed down by presiding judge Aude Buresi, is set to be announced from noon (1000 GMT).

French law does not allow sentences to be added together even when there are multiple victims.

One of the lawyers, Maxime Tessier, has asked the court to take into account the "exceptional" nature of Le Scouarnec's confession when he admitted all the charges against him in March.

The retired surgeon also said he considered himself "responsible" for the death of two of his victims -- Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021 in what his family says was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020.

Le Scouarnec documented his crimes, noting his victims' names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse.

In his notes, the doctor described himself as a "major pervert" and a "paedophile".

"And I am very happy about it," he recorded.

'ATOMIC BOMB OF PAEDOPHILIA'

While Le Scouarnec has asked his victims for forgiveness, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial, sometimes word for word.

"You are the worst mass paedophile who ever lived," said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, describing him as the "atomic bomb of paedophilia".

The victims "will never forgive you. Never," Delaby told the defendant.

"Who are you trying to convince that you've changed?" said another lawyer, Delphine Caro.

"Admitting everything is admitting nothing," added a third lawyer, Giovanni Bertho-Briand.

The surgeon practised for decades until his retirement in 2017 despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children and colleagues raising their concerns.

Le Scouarnec might stand trial again in the future, the public prosecutor said in his closing speech.

The Lorient public prosecutor's office has opened two investigations linked to the retired doctor's case, one of which concerns "possibly unidentified or newly reported victims" of sexual assault and rape.

There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact in France they hoped for.

The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele.