The specialist in visceral and digestive surgery is referred to the Morbihan departmental criminal court for 300 counts of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual violence committed against 299 victims. Some of them were attacked in the operating room, while they were sedated, while waking up or falling asleep, or on their hospital bed, under the pretext of professional actions. The Poitiers research section (Vienna) and the Morbihan gendarmerie group had identified 314 victims. Many also discovered their victim status when they were summoned by investigators. Joël Le Scouarnec’s lawyers wanted the statute of limitations to be recognized for 85 of them. The Rennes Court of Appeal recognized the statute of limitations in fifteen cases.
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2 11 years old, average age of victims
Joël Le Scouarnec is said to have abused 158 boys and 141 girls. Most (285 exactly) were under 20 years old, and 256 under 15 years old. He was dismissed for 111 counts of aggravated rape and 189 counts of aggravated sexual violence. “The oldest facts, outside the statute of limitations, date back to January 1989; the most recent as of January 2014,” specifies Stéphane Kellenberger. The surgeon faces 20 years in prison. Detained at the Ploemeur remand center (56), he is serving a sentence, pronounced on December 3, 2020 by the Charente-Maritime Assize Court, of fifteen years in prison for sexual abuse of four little girls. Two were her nieces, the third, a four-year-old patient and the fourth, her neighbor, aged 6. She is the one who confides in her parents. “My daughter is the hero of the story, she is a 6-year-old little girl who managed to denounce the biggest pedophile in France, the justice system was not able to do it, but she succeeded,” his mother will say.
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3 Extraordinary trials
The judicial investigation against Joël Le Scouarnec was opened on October 15, 2020. Lorient investigating judge Camille Aspeele issued her indictment order, which is 745 pages long, on September 27, 2024. An appeal can be formed within ten days following notification of this order. Subtlety: the defense and the civil parties do not all receive this notification on the same day. It is therefore still in progress… Even if it were postponed due to an appeal before the investigating chamber, the trial would last three to four months. In addition to the judicial court, part of the former law faculty of Vannes, including an amphitheater with 400 seats, will be protected for the broadcast of the debates.
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4 A viscerally cautious surgeon
Joël Le Scouarnec had a mania for classifying everything, including his more than 300,000 child pornography photos and videos. Stored on hard drives, they were discovered by the police under his… mattress. Like an entomologist, he also detailed all his pedophile acts in his diaries, quickly renamed “black notebooks” by victims. He detailed to the point of disgust the rapes and abuses carried out on the young children who passed through his service. “He explained (to the investigating judge, Editor’s note) his operating methods, the determination of the actions taken, as well as the precautions he deployed, in order not to risk being discovered,” details the prosecutor. . Joël le Scouarnec never imagined that his private notebooks would be discovered. In his will, he had written this instruction: “Destroy everything without reading”.
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5 Another parallel procedure
A preliminary investigation for “voluntary failure to prevent crimes or offenses against physical integrity” continues. It is distinct from the investigation for aggravated rape and sexual assault which has just ended. “It is, however, linked to it, so that it remains necessary to await the outcome of the upcoming trial,” specifies the Lorient prosecutor. The surgeon had been the target of reports, which were passed on to the Ministry of Health. In 2006, in particular, an emergency doctor at Quimperlé hospital informed the departmental council of the order of rumors. Joël Le Scouarnec, who worked in a dozen hospitals and clinics in Loches (Indre-et-Loire), Vannes, Lorient, Quimperlé (29) and Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), had in fact been heard in 2004 by the Grand-Champ gendarmerie (56), after the dismantling of a Russian child pornography site, on which his name appeared.
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