PARIS (AP) – France is about to hold the biggest child sex abuse trial of history. Former surgeons, primarily child patients, accused of raping or sexually abusering 299 people while one man was on the dock – activists empowering other victims in the trial, and social studies They hope to help expose other abusers who have been protected by the taboos for a long time.
At the heart of the trial was a calm, detailed notebook of defendant Joel Le Scowlneck, who used to document decades of sexual violence.
Le Skaulneck, now 74, will face hundreds of casualties in the Brittany region of northwest France in the four-month trial that began Monday. He doesn't deny the accusation, but he says he doesn't remember everything.
Some survivors had no memory of the attack and were unconscious at the time to undergo surgery with Le Skaurneck's hands.
The trial comes as activists push for lifting up taboos surrounding sexual abuse. It was highlighted in the trial that recently created Gisèle Pélicot, which was drugged and raped by her ex-husband and dozens of others.
Associations of Child Protection and Women's Rights Groups and the Medical Society see shame as an opportunity to reaffirm that aspects must be changed.
“It should also mark a new step towards a judicial system that listens and protects victims and firmly convicts invaders,” they said in a statement.
Le Scouarnec is faced in prison for up to 20 years for rape, sexual assault, indecent acts committed to violence and surprise.
The incident began in 2017 when a 6-year-old neighbor denounced Le Skaurneck.
Subsequent searches of his home revealed that he described himself as a pedophile and described his actions, including over 300,000 photographs, 650 pedophografies, zoos, and scatology video files, as well as research documents. A detailed notebook has been discovered.
In 2020, Le Skaurneck was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two nies and a young patient.
According to research documents, Le Scouarnec acknowledged child abuse from 1985 to 1986. Some cases could not be prosecuted as the restrictions law expired.
The VANNES trial examines rape and other abuses committed between 1989 and 2014 on 141 women, with 158 men and 141 women, on average, age 11.
According to investigative documents, doctors sexually abused both boys and girls while alone in the hospital room. His strategy was to disguise sexual violence as a medical procedure and target young patients who were unlikely to remember what had happened.
Roland and Mauricet Vinette are photographed by grandson Matisse, the victim of Joel Le Skaurneck, a French surgeon who was 10 years old in Saint-Germain, France, on February 3, 2025. Shows. His grandson, Matisse, is one of about 300 victims. A person who was sexually assaulted or raped by former surgeon Joel Le Scowlneck. He died of an overdose in 2021. Roland and Mauricket Vinnett consider themselves “a victim of collateral” and attend trial “to respect his memory.” The former surgeon will be tested before the Criminal Court in Morbihan from February 24, 2025 for rape or sexual assault of 299 former patients. (Photo: Guillaume Souvant/AFP
“I really didn't remember the operation. One of the victims, Amélie Lévêque, remembered her time at the hospital at the age of nine in 1991. That was what happened during this surgery. Ta.”
A few years later, she felt overwhelmed when she learned that her name had appeared in Le Skullneck's notebook.
“That was the beginning of answering questions for a lifetime, and then when I left my lawyer's office, it was the beginning of a descent into hell,” she said. “I felt like I had lost all my control. I wasn't crazy, but now I had to face the truth of what happened.”
She also described the emotional sacrifice of revelation.
“I was in deep depression… my family tried to help, but I felt completely alone,” she said.
The Associated Press will not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or decide to tell the story publicly.
Le Scaalneck's lawyer Thibaut Kruzawa told the Sudouest newspaper that his client “answer the judge's questions” when he decided he would “face reality.”
The case may have been revealed much earlier. Le Scouarnec was already convicted in 2005 for possession and import of child pornography and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Nevertheless, he was appointed a hospital practitioner the following year. Due to delays in processing, the criminal history checks requested by the then Ministry of Health did not include any mention of his past crimes.
Even after being informed of his conviction, health authorities and hospital management did not pursue disciplinary action.
Some child protection groups have joined the lawsuit as civil parties. Jean-Christophe Boyer, an attorney for the L'Enfant Bleu Association, said it was about “doing something, perhaps modifying the legal framework… ensuring that this kind of situation doesn't happen again.”
The Independent Committee on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children called for “major cultural changes.”
“A career in child abuse is built not by monsters, but by the continuous silence of all witnesses,” the statement said. “Each expert is in the position of responsibility of each witness's actions, particularly the health, administrative or judicial authority.”
