A retired doctor in Belgium has been jailed for five years – with one-third of his sentence suspended – for raping a young boy with Down’s syndrome
A 74-year-old man in Belgium has been jailed for five years for raping a young boy with Down’s syndrome.
The retired GP, who worked in the city of Liège, was sentenced to five years – with one-third of the sentence suspended – at the Liège Court of Appeal on Tuesday following an earlier trial.
The court heard the abuse took place in March and May 2021. The child told investigators he had been raped twice by the defendant, who continued to see several patients after retirement and had a long-standing friendship with the boy’s father.
The boy described one of the assaults occurring during a shared shower at the doctor’s house after a sports session. He was unable to precisely describe the other incident, The Brussels Times reports.
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While the doctor denied the boy’s account, his explanations for being in the shower with the child were inconsistent. A medical examination revealed physical signs of sexual abuse, and a psychological report described the former GP as having a narcissistic personality.
In an earlier trial in late September, the defendant was given a five-year sentence with two-thirds suspended. The prosecution had asked for a six-year prison sentence due to the child’s vulnerability, while the former doctor’s lawyers argued for acquittal or a suspended sentence.
The case comes amid a disturbing medical child abuse case in France. In May, Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, a paedophile surgeon, was found guilty of sexually abusing hundreds of people – most of them underage patients – over decades.
Le Scouarnec confessed to 111 rapes and 188 sexual assaults and was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in prison. He had previously been jailed in 2020 for the rape and sexual assault of his child neighbour, his two nieces and a four-year-old patient.
During the investigation, police discovered electronic diaries detailing three decades of sexual abuse on young patients in hospitals and medical centres across western France. His victims included 158 males and 141 females, with an average age of 11. All charges were aggravated because he was a respected medic, which prosecutors said allowed him to evade punishment for so long.
Le Scouarnec kept a detailed diary recording the names, ages and types of abuse he subjected patients to. On his birthday each year, he allegedly jotted down in the journal: “I am a paedophile, and I am proud of it.”