The France Rape Case: New Charges expected as former doctor Joel Le Scouarnec admits he has attacked his granddaughter

Paris – There was a shock in Western France in the courtroom, as former doctor Joel Le Scouarnec admitted without any invitation to sexually abuse his own granddaughter. Le Scouarnec, 74, is a trial of about a week to Friday, charged with rape or sexual abuse of 299 children, but his granddaughter is not among the alleged victims in that case – who were all his patients at the time.

The former surgeon stood up and addressed the court immediately after his eldest son, whose name was not used at trial, gave evidence.

“This may be, almost certainly, the last time I will see my son, because I heard his anger and his trouble,” Le Scouarnec said in a court in Vannes, Brittany. “I respect that anger, it is well founded. Yes, I admit that I abused my granddaughter, his daughter.”

Then he turned to his son and said, “Forgive me.”

The trial was postponed immediately after making a statement. Later on Friday night, regional prosecutors confirmed that new accusations would be filed against Le Scouarnec about his recognition in the courtroom.

It was the last in a series of emotional moments at the trial, which opened on February 24th.

Le Scouarnec is charged with rape or sexual abuse of 299 people, almost all of whom were children under his treatment at the time of alleged attacks. According to the number of alleged victims, it is the only largest trial related to the alleged sexual abuse of children in France and one of the largest ever in the world. Shocked France, coming to the heels of the second trial for mass rape that included A man who drugged his wife and brought foreigners to their home to attack her for years.

The public prosecutor who was dealing with the Le Scouarnec case said the alleged attacks took place for over 25 years between 1989 and 2014, in several hospitals in the French region of Western Brittany, where the doctor worked. The prosecutor said the average age of victims – which are both male and women – at the time of alleged abuse for 11 years.

During the first week’s procedure, members of the immediate family of Le Scouarnec testified what they knew about the accusations.

His ex-wife Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec took an attitude on Wednesday and denied that he had any knowledge from her husband’s alleged actions.

“Nothing could make me think about it. Nothing,” she told the court. “I never had a slope. It’s so huge, so unthinkable, unthinkable that my husband could have done it all.”

The alleged attacks came to light in 2017 after the then-6-year-old daughter Le Scouarnec told her daughter that she had exposed herself and touched her through the fence that had separated the yards.

During the search of their home as part of that investigation, police said they had discovered hard disks containing more than 300,000 photographs and videos on children abuse. They also said they had found notebooks with careful records of alleged abuse of children’s patients.

The doctor was convicted in December 2020. For sexual abuse of four young girls-young neighbors, as well as a four-year-old patient and two of his nephews. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In court on Friday, his eldest son spoke of how his world had fallen apart and how he turned to alcohol for some time after these initial discoveries. He said he and his father were very close when he grew up and had only good memories of his childhood.

Last week, he was questioned about the belief of her husband for abusing his two nephews, Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec said she knew nothing about it either. The next day, the sister of the former surgeon-Majka two nephew-Zauzela stance and accused the perpetrator’s ex-wife “cruelty” and “lies” in his testimony.

Annie’s wife, whose surname was not published in the trial, claimed that Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec knew that her husband had abused his nephews. Annie said that her youngest of her two daughters confided in October 2000 that Le Scouarnec had sexually abused her. She told the court that her brother had confessed to the attack on her and said that his wife was aware of what had happened.

The 2017 investigation was not the first brush of Le Scouarnec with the law. In 2005, he was convicted of possessing a picture of sexual abuse of children after an International Network Investigation. He received a four -year suspended sentence for these crimes. The court, however, did not order any psychological monitoring or any limitations in his work.

During his career, Le Scouarnec worked in several hospitals across the Brittenan region. Victims’ associations asked that he could perform so many alleged attacks without any alarm.

Investigators said few children had memories of alleged attacks. For many of them, it came as a complete shock when police contacted them with evidence of what was supposedly happening, as recounted in surgeon magazines.

As the trial began on February 24th.Le Scouarnec told the court that he “committed awful deeds,” and his lawyer said he admitted to performing a “huge majority” of the attack he was charged with.

“I owe all these people and their loved ones to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences they had,” Le Scouarnec said in court.

Outside the courtroom that first day, a small group of protesters made posters who denied “more than 20 years of silence” about the past of the surgeon.

The trial is expected to last four months. During this time, 299 alleged casualties – which are now men and women – will be invited to recount what they can remember their interactions with Le Scouarnec, which is facing up to 20 years in prison if they are convicted.