French Surgeon Handed Maximum Term For Abusing Children For Decades

A French court on Wednesday gave the maximum 20-year jail term to a surgeon who admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, during more than two decades.

The three-month trial of Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has brought to light the extent of his crimes and the suffering of his victims but also raised questions of why more was not done sooner to stop him.

Le Scouarnec, one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history, was already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.

The 20-year sentence for aggravated rape handed down by presiding judge Aude Buresi was the maximum that could be given on the charge of aggravated rape in France, where sentences are not added together on individual counts.

Le Scouarnec will not be able to ask for parole until two-thirds of the verdict is served.

"It was taken into account that the acts committed are of particular gravity due to the number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature" of the crimes, said the verdict.

But the court rejected a rare demand from prosecutors that he should be held in a centre for treatment and supervision even after any release, citing his "desire to make amends" for what he had done.

The prosecutor has said last week that in the United States -- where the opposite is the case -- Le Scouarnec could have been jailed for "2,000 years".

In this trial, which began in February in Vannes in the western region of Brittany, Le Scouarnec has admitted sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients -- 256 of them under 15 -- in hospitals between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations.

He was charged with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults.

Survivors of the surgeon's abuse staged a protest outside the court in Vannes, holding signs such as "Never again" and "I accuse you."

They also held signs representing 355 victims of Le Scouarnec.

That number included "forgotten victims and those whose cases have been dismissed," said Manon Lemoine, one of the victims.

"We want to be together," she said.

Another victim, Celine Mahuteau, on Wednesday sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron saying that France has not implemented a national policy "to prevent paedophilia."

"I am not asking the court for leniency," Le Scouarnec said in his closing statement on Monday.

"Simply grant me the right to become a better person," he said.

One of the lawyers, Maxime Tessier, had asked the court to take into account the "exceptional" nature of Le Scouarnec's confession when he admitted all the charges against him.

The retired surgeon also said he considered himself "responsible" for the death of two of his victims -- Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021 in what his family says was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020.

Le Scouarnec documented his crimes, noting his victims' names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse.

In his notes, the doctor described himself as a "major pervert" and a "paedophile".

"And I am very happy about it," he recorded.

Victims and child rights advocates say the case highlights systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes.

In 2005, he received a four-month suspended prison sentence after investigators linked his credit card to the online purchase of child sexual abuse material.

But Le Scouarnec was neither required to undergo treatment nor barred from practising medicine.

While Le Scouarnec has asked his victims for forgiveness, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial.

"You are the worst mass paedophile who ever lived," said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, describing Le Scouarnec as an "atomic bomb of paedophilia".

There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact in France they hoped for.

The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele.

But Health Minister Yannick Neuder said on Wednesday he would work with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to ensure that "never again will we find ourselves in a situation where patients and vulnerable children" are exposed to predators.

"What we want to say is never again," he told broadcaster France Info. "How did we get into this situation?"