Former surgeon at trial in France after being charged with rape or abuse of 299 victims, most of which were children’s patients

France will soon hold its biggest trial for sexual abuse of children. While only one man on a dock – a former surgeon charged with rape or sexual abuse of 299 people, mostly children’s patients – activists hope that trial provides other victims and helps expose other abusers who have long been protected by social taboos.

The central trial is the defendant Joël Le Scouarnec cold detailed notebooks, which he used to document the decade of sexual violence.

Le Scouarnec, who is now 74, will face hundreds of casualties during a four -month trial, which began on Monday in Vannes, in the Bretanj region in northwestern France. He does not deny the charges, although he says he doesn’t remember everything.

Some survivors have no memories of attacks, because at the time they were unconscious to undergo surgery in the hands of Le Scouarnec.

Testing comes as activists are pushing to raise taboos around sexual abuse. This was recently highlighted during the trial that made Gisèle Pélicot, which her ex -husband drugged and raped And dozens of others, a French symbol of the fight against sexual violence.

Groups for the protection of children and the women’s groups for the rights and associations of the Medical Community see a trial as an opportunity to confirm that shame must change foreign.

“This should also mark a new step towards the judicial system that listens and protects the victims and firmly condemns the aggressors,” they said in a statement.

Abuse dated for decades

Le Scouarnec is facing up to 20 years in prison for rape, sexual attack and rude acts committed with violence or surprise.

The case began in 2017 when a 6-year-old neighbor denied Le Scouarnec, who touched her over a fence that separated their properties.

The subsequent search for his home has discovered more than 300,000 photographs, 650 pedornographic, zoophilic and scatological videos, as well as notebooks in which he described as a pedophile and described in detail his actions, according to investigative documents.

Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in prison for rape and sexual attack of four children, including two nephews and a young patient in 2020.

Le Scouarnec acknowledged the abuse of children from 1985-1986, according to investigative documents. Some cases could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations expired.

The trial of Vannes will examine rapes and other abuse committed from 1989 to 2014 to 158 men and 141 women who were 11 at the time.

The victims were stunned by what had happened

The doctor sexually abused both boys and girls when they were alone in their hospital rooms, according to investigative documents. His strategy was to disguise sexual violence to medical acts, aiming for young patients who were less likely to remember what happened.

“I did not really remember the operation. I remembered the postoperative, a surgeon who was quite mean,” one of the victims, Amélie Lévêque, recalled her time at the hospital at the age of 9 in 1991. Much, but I didn’t think something like this happened to me during this surgery. “

Years later, she described a sense of overcrowding when she learned that her name appeared in Le Scouarnec’s notebooks.

“It was the beginning of a response to life, and then it was the beginning of descending to hell as I left the lawyer’s office,” she said. “I felt like I lost control of everything. I wasn’t crazy, but now I had to face the truth of what happened.”

She also described the emotional tribute of revelation.

“I fell into a deep depression … My family tried to help, but I felt completely alone,” she said.

Associated Press does not name people who say they were sexually attacked if they do not agree to be identified or decide to publicly tell their stories.

Le Scouarnec’s lawyer, Thibaut Kurzawa, told the court of court-Ohest that his client “would answer questions of judges” while he decided to “face reality”.

Activists want this to be a social call to wake up

The case could have come to light much earlier. Already in 2005, Le Scouarnec was convicted of possession and import of child pornography and sentenced to four months of suspended prison.

Nevertheless, he was appointed hospital doctor next year. Due to the delays in processing, the criminal records requested by the Ministry of Health at the time did not include any mention of his past criminal offenses.

Even after being informed of his belief, health authorities and hospital management did not continue disciplinary measures.

Some children’s protection groups joined the proceedings as a civil party. The lawyer of the L’Enfant Bleu Association, Jean-Christophe Boyer, said one key purpose was to “do something, perhaps amend the legal framework … to prevent such a situation from repeating.”

The Independent Incest and Sexual Violence Commission called for a “main cultural change”.

“Careers for abuse of children build, not monsters, but a consecutive silence of all witnesses,” the statement said. “The duty is every witness to take measures, and especially every professional in the position of responsibility in the health, administrative or judicial institution.”