Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, was previously jailed for the rape and sexual assault of four victims, but faces a further trial next week after police discovered diaries detailing hundreds of abuses
A paedophile surgeon jailed for the rape and assault of his six-year-old neighbour kept a diary describing the sick abuse of hundreds of people, including anaesthetised patients.
Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, was jailed in 2020 for the rape and sexual assault of his child neighbour, as well as his two nieces and a 4-year-old patient. However, during the investigation police in western France discovered electronic diaries with details of three decades of rapes and sexual assaults on young patients in hospitals.
Prosecutors have now charged him with the aggravated rape and sexual assault of 299 people, many of whom were children. Some of the alleged victims were anaesthetised when the abuse took place.
In many of the diary entries Le Scouarnec is said to have described himself as a “paedophile” and recorded the name and how he abused his victims, as well as the date and location. Authorities are now working to match the dates to those affected.
On Monday, Le Scouarnec will face trial on those charges in the Breton town of Vannes, in France’s largest ever child sexual abuse case. Prosecutors say Le Scouarnec has admitted to investigators many of the accusations he faces but lawyers declined to comment ahead of the trial.
One victim, who was 12 when Le Scouarnec allegedly abused him, said: “I realise I shouldn’t have been operated on by this surgeon. I feel betrayed by authorities … Why did nobody forbid this surgeon from working with children?”
Many of the anaesthetised patients had no recollection of the alleged abuse. However, psychiatrists have documented symptoms of post-traumatic stress in victims, according to court documents.
One young patient, Mathis Vinet, was 10 in 2007 when his father and grandfather took him to the Quimperle hospital with stomach pain. His grandfather, Roland Vinet, 78, thought nothing of the surgeon’s order Mathis spend the night alone in the hospital.
His family said Mathis was never the same after the hospital visit, and fell into a life of alcohol and drugs. He died of an overdose at 24 in 2021, three years after learning from the police about the abuse he allegedly had suffered, and having flashbacks.
Vinet and his wife, who are plaintiffs in the case, said they believed Mathis took his own life. His grandmother, Maury Vinet, said: “The very day he died we said we’re going to continue the fight. Yes, Mathis is no longer here but we told him that we would always be with him.”
Another alleged victim was Amelie Leveque who was operated o by Le Scouarnec in 1991 and believes she was raped by him. She said: “I always knew something abnormal had happened.”
Le Scouarnec was given a suspended four-month jail sentence when he was convicted in 2005 for possessing child pornography. He was given a job as a surgeon at the Quimperle public hospital the following year.
A psychiatrist at the hospital alerted management to his concerns about Le Scouarnec’s behaviour in 2006, a court document said, but the surgeon continued to work with children.
The prosecutor in Lorient, Stephane Kellenberger, whose office led the investigation into Le Scouarnec’s alleged crimes, said he has opened a separate preliminary probe to ascertain if there was any criminal liability by agencies or individuals who could have prevented the abuse. The trial starts in France on Monday.
The horror comes months after Dominique Pélicot, 71, was jailed for 20 years. The rapist lead a sick campaign of abuse against his wife, running an online chatroom titled ‘without her knowledge’ where he would advertise for men to perform vile sexual acts on his unwitting wife. Several of these men returned to abuse her unresponsive body again and again.