French Surgeon Who Abused Hundreds of Children Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

A retired surgeon has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing 299 victims, nearly all children, in France’s largest-ever pedophile trial.

Dressed in black and standing emotionless, Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, listened as the judge delivered the verdict in court. He had admitted to the charges in March.

He was found guilty of 111 rapes and 188 sexual assaults committed between 1989 and 2014. The average age of his victims at the time of the abuse was 11.

He typically preyed on his young patients during their most vulnerable moments—while they were under anesthesia or unconscious from surgery. He meticulously recorded details of his assaults in diaries.

These diary notebooks enabled police to identify the victims, some of whom were unaware of the abuse they suffered. Among the victims were 158 boys and 141 girls.

The trial began in February. During the proceedings, dozens of victims testified, sharing how the abuse they endured as children profoundly impacted their lives.

Le Scouarnec confessed to all sexual abuse allegations made by the 299 civil parties, as well as other assaults that fall beyond the statute of limitations.

In a disturbing confession during the trial, he admitted to sexually abusing his granddaughter—a statement made in front of her visibly distraught parents.

“I didn’t see them as people,” he told the court. “They were the destination of my fantasies. As the trial went on, I began to see them as individuals, with emotions, anger, suffering, and distress.”

The case first came to light in April 2017, when a 6-year-old neighbor reported to her mother that Le Scouarnec exposed himself and touched her through their shared fence, prompting a police search of his home.

The search revealed over 300,000 photos, 650 sexually explicit videos, and diaries detailing his pedophilia.

“Joel Le Scouarnec says he no longer feels any sexual attraction to children, but there’s no way to verify that,” Kellenberger, the prosecutor, told the court. “Experts concluded that we cannot rely on his word alone and that his potential for future danger remains significant.”

Another trial is expected in the coming years, following new allegations that emerged during this trial, including further abuse involving his granddaughter.

Nearly Three Decades Unchecked

The trial has sparked widespread outrage, with advocacy groups questioning how health authorities allowed Joel Le Scouarnec to get away with it for nearly 30 years, despite being flagged 21 years ago.

In 2004, the FBI identified Le Scouarnec downloading child abuse images. A year later, a French court imposed a suspended four-month sentence and a €90 ($101) fine.

However, no actions were taken to revoke his medical license or restrict his access to children. Even more concerning, the hospital later promoted Le Scouarnec to head of surgery.

In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping his 6-year-old neighbor, assaulting two nieces in the 1980s and 1990s, and abusing a 4-year-old patient.

But this turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.

With his newly imposed 20-year sentence, French law mandates that sentences run concurrently, meaning Le Scouarnec will serve additional time only after completing his initial sentence.

The case has fueled demands for reforms to France’s medical ethics codes, which critics argue discourage doctors from reporting abuse.

“Should Joel Le Scouarnec have been the only one in the defendant’s box?” prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger asked during his closing arguments.

“More could have been done,” Kellenberger said. “Things could have been done differently, even within the notorious layers of French bureaucracy, where responsibilities are so often passed from one authority to another until, eventually, that responsibility is lost, and hits innocent lives.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.