Former surgeon faces 20 years in prison as France’s largest child sexual abuse trial comes to an end

The verdict in France’s largest-ever child sexual abuse case is set to be delivered Wednesday, bringing the landmark three-month trial to an end.

Former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, faces up to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting 299 victims over three decades, most of them girls and boys whose average age was 11. Many were assaulted while they were under the effects of anesthesia or recovering from surgery, prosecutors said.

Le Scouarnec, himself a father of three, confessed to committing “hideous acts” during the trial in the northwestern town of Vannes in the region of Brittany, where he admitted to many, but not all of his charges.

His sentence will run concurrently with the 15 years he is serving after he was found guilty in 2020 of raping a young neighbor and three others when they were children.

After lawyers for some of the victims complained that he could be released by 2030 if his pretrial detention and parole eligibility were taken into account, the prosecution has made the rare request that he be held in a treatment center under supervision even if he is released.

Many victims have said they don’t remember being assaulted, but police were able to build a case against Le Scouarnec because he meticulously cataloged his abuse in digital diaries.

Hundreds of witnesses testified at the trial, including Le Scouarnec’s niece and a family friend. Now in their 40s, both said he assaulted them in the early 1980s. However, French law did not allow him to be prosecuted for their alleged abuse because it happened too long ago.

In France it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor under the age of 15, though child advocates say many adults are never charged.

The case has put a spotlight on the French medical system, which allowed Le Scouarnec to continue working despite many warning signs, including a 2005 conviction for possessing images depicting child abuse.

Lawyers for some of the victims have said the once-respected local doctor should have been stripped of his medical privileges after that case. Instead, Le Scouarnec worked across nine public hospitals and private clinics in five regions of France, where he specialized in appendectomies, abdominal and gynecological surgery.

Victims’ advocates also hope the case will prompt a hard look at what they call a lax pursuit of child abuse allegations, particularly when doctors — who are in short supply in many areas — are accused of misconduct.

“There were warnings over 30 years,” Francesca Satta, a lawyer who represented 10 victims and families said previously, adding, “This man benefited from a system that opened the door for him to have his own hunting ground.”

During the trial, many victims watched the proceedings through a video link in a 450-seat auditorium, a short walk from the courthouse, which was too small to cope with the number of people who wanted to watch the case unfold. Two other transmission rooms in a former law school broadcasted the trial to the media and spectators.