A former surgeon in France has been accused of raping and sexually abusing nearly 300 children, most of whom have been his patients. According to some investigation documents, the doctor had sexually abused both boys and girls when they were alone in their hospital rooms.
The 74-year-old surgeon went on trial on February 24, years after investigators searched his home, shuffled through his notebooks, and found notes wherein the accused had described himself as a paedophile and detailed his actions.

The former surgeon was identified as Le Scouarnec, and acknowledged in the court he had committed rapes and sexual assaults over three decades.

“I committed odious acts,” Le Scouarnec told the court in Vannes. “They were only children,” he added.

However, Scouarnec also told the court he regards himself as not guilty of those crimes in some of the cases.

“I am aware that these injuries are irreparable. I cannot go back in time but I owe it to all of these people and their loved ones to take responsibility for my actions,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, the accused faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, on top of the 15 years he has been serving after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of children.

Some survivors have no memory of the assaults, being unconscious at the time. One man now in his thirties testified he was assaulted during a consultation in 1995 when he was a young boy.

“I remember certain things in the recovery room. I was in total panic. I called my dad,” he told the court, according to the Associated Press.

HOW WAS THE FORMER SURGEON IDENTIFIED

According to the AP report, Scouarnec’s trial came as activists pushed to dismantle taboos that have long surrounded sexual abuse in France.

Back in 2017, a six-year-old, one of Scouarnec’s neighbours, claimed the surgeon had touched her over the fence separating their properties.

As the investigators launched a probe, they searched his home and uncovered more than 300,000 photos, 650 pedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a paedophile.

According to a report with Daily Mail, the police also discovered a collection of life-sized dolls under the parquet flooring of the house which Le Scouarnec was using for his sexual gratification. In his diaries, he also professed his love for the dolls.

In other notes, Scouarnec wrote, “I am a paedophile and I always will be”.

It is also believed that at one stage his then-wife, Marie-France, discovered her husband’s sordid activities. In 1997, Scouarnec wrote, “It has been nine months since she discovered that I am a paedophile”.

Dozens of the surgeon’s alleged victims – now adults and seeing him for the first time since they were abused – watched via a video link as the white-haired, bespectacled man in the dock was asked by Judge Aude Buresi if wanted to make any comment at the end of the first day’s proceedings.

Many of his victims had also been driven to suicide, suffered from alcohol and drug addiction or had difficulties forming relationships, the Daily Mail report stated.

In 2020, Scouarnec was convicted of rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He has admitted to child abuse dating to 1985-1986, but some cases could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired.

Earlier, in 2005, Scouarnec was convicted for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material. He was then sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year

Source :Associated Press