Former wife, sister testifies in trial French surgeon accused of sexual abuse of hundreds of children

Weeks after a massive rape attempt that included a A man who drugged his wife And he brought foreigners home to attack, France interferes with it again because the new alleged predator appears in court.

AND trial Operation is underway, France, 74-year-old Joel Le Scouarnec, a former surgeon accused of rape or sexual abuse of 299 people, almost all the children who were his patients. It is the largest trial that refers to the alleged abuse of sex sex in France – and one of the largest in the world.

His ex-wife, Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec, took an attitude on Wednesday and denied that she had knowledge of her husband’s activities. “Nothing could make me think about it. Nothing,” she told the court.

“I never had the abolition. It’s so huge, so unthinkable, unthinkable that my husband could have done it all,” she said.

The alleged attacks took place for over 25 years, between 1989 and 2014, according to the prosecution. The average age of children – both girls and boys – was 11.

The prosecution claims that many victims were still under anesthesia or just left it when they were attacked. Others barely woke up in their hospital beds because the surgeon allegedly attacked them as he performed his wound morning rounds.

On the first day of the trial, which began on Monday, Le Scouarnec told the court that he “committed horrible acts”. His lawyer said he admitted that he had made 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.

The alleged abuse of former patients Le Scouarnec only came to light in 2017, after a 6-year-old daughter of his neighbor told her parents to expose herself and touched her through the fence that shared their gardens.

During the search of their home, police said they had discovered hard disks containing more than 300,000 photos and videos showing the abuse of the child. They also found notebooks with careful records of alleged abuse of children’s patients.

This investigation led to his belief in December 2020. Because of his sexual abuse of four girls: a young neighbor, a four -year -old and two of his nephews. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

On Thursday, the sister of the former surgeon, the mother of two nephews, took an attitude and accused her ex-wife of “cruelty” and “lies”. The woman, Annie, whose last name was not published at the trial, said Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec knew that her husband had abused his nephews, which Marie-Franca Le Scouarnec denied in court.

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.

In 2005, Le Scouarnec was convicted of possessing a picture of sexual abuse of children, after an investigating FBI from an international network. He received a four -year suspended sentence. The court ordered no psychological monitoring or restriction of his work.

Le Scouarnec told investigators that, although he had told employers at a hospital at Quimperlé’s hospital, they had not been taken by some measures.

During his career, Le Scouarnec has worked in numerous hospitals across Brittany, the region in West France, where his trial is held. This brought many to examine how he could perform so many alleged rapes and attacks without raising alarm.

Investigators said few victims had memories of alleged attacks. For many of them, this came as a complete shock when police contacted them with evidence of what happened, as recounted in the surgeon magazines.

Outside the courtroom on Monday, a small group of protesters charged posters that denied “more than 20 years of silence” about the past surgeon.

The trial should last for 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 the Le Scouarnec, which faces 20 years in prison if they are convicted.

contributed to this report.