Former surgeon Joel Le Scowlneck was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday after raping 299 children and committing sexual assault over 25 years between 1989 and 2014.
The judge followed the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Lecuarneck to France’s maximum sentence for worsening rape after a three-month trial.
Most of the victims of Le Scouarnec were unconscious or sedative hospital patients when the crime occurred. The 74-year-old victims include 158 boys and 141 girls, an average of 11 years old at the time of the crime.
The Morbihan Crown Court in Brittany ordered the former surgeon to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before qualifying for parole release.
Le Scouarnec has already faced 15 years in prison for the conviction handed over in 2020 for rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nie.
Under French law, sentences are carried out simultaneously, and Le Scaalnec must only provide it a few more years after the first sentence is completed.
Despite handing the maximum sentence to Le Scouarnec, the court rejected a request from prosecutors to apply certain provisions of French criminal law, designed to ensure that offenders who served the sentence but were likely to be placed in the supervisory centre upon release.
However, the court rejected the request and cited Le Scaalneck’s “desire to correct it.”
For many of Le Skullneck’s victims and their lawyers, the decision was a major blow.
“I am baffled by this decision as Le Skullneck’s psychiatric evaluation raised concerns about the risks that he could potentially repeat a similar crime,” Gwendolyn Tennier, a lawyer representing one of the former surgeon’s victims, told Euroneuz.
Le Scouarnec was first convicted of possession of child pornography in 2005, and was sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 90 euros.
At the time, no measures were taken to suspend his medical license or limit contact with children, and Le Skaurneck continued to abuse him in the hospital until his arrest in 2017.
Many victims are disappointed in the trial
Many Le Skullneck victims and their lawyers complain that they are aware of the lack of attention from the media during the trial.
“The media coverage of the trial was extremely disappointing and had led to an indication of the level of violent crimes committed,” Mael Noir, a feminist Nugo Nus Tutes activist, told Euroneuz.
“We have no choice but to compare media coverage of this case to the trial of Dominic Pericot, in which Gisèle portrayed as a kind of iconic figure. This could not have happened in this trial due to the enormous amount of casualties,” Noir added.
For others, the media is not only responsible, but also criticising the public who can’t handle the nature of the crime.
“This unstable and repulsive behavior committed against children exceeds the intellectual and processing capabilities of many individuals. This is extremely problematic as it causes many people to turn away from these issues,” Tennier told Euroneus.
Tennier’s client was summoned in 2019 by police investigators and was summoned at a life-changing hearing.
“She discovered Le Skaurneck raped her when she was 11 years old while she was being treated for appendicitis in the hospital,” Tennier said.
The alleged incident occurred in 2001 at a hospital in Brittany where Annabelle’s mother worked as a care assistant, and Le Skaurneck had been practicing for years.
Le Skourneck with institutional surveillance protected
French health and justice authorities have also been partially condemned for the scale of abuse Le Skaurneck was able to carry out, according to several victims and human rights NGOs.
In mid-May 50 victims asked the authorities to establish a ministerial committee in France’s health and justice ministries and the authorities after the trial.
Meanwhile, the child protection charity, Lavoic de Enphant, has condemned the lack of investigations of Le Skoulneck from health authorities or other affiliated organizations despite serving a four-month suspended prison sentence in 2005 for possessing images of child pornography.
A culmination of seven years of research
The trial was the culmination of a seven-year investigation, when a 6-year-old neighbor told her parents that Le Skaurneck touched her on a fence where they separated their property.
Police searched Le Skullneck’s home and discovered his diary, along with the victim’s name, allegedly a meticulous catalog of cases of rape and abuse.
In one entry, he is said to have written: “I’m a pedophile and I’ll always be.”
Not all victims initially knew they had been abused. Some were contacted by investigators after his name appeared in a journal held by Le Scouarnec.
Others only noticed that after checking their medical records they were hospitalized at the time. Two of his victims took their lives a few years before trial.
Using a medical procedure cover, the former surgeon took advantage of the moment the child was alone in the hospital room.
His method was to disguise sexual abuse as clinical care, targeting young patients who did not remember their encounters.
Le Scouarnec’s trial comes just months after the Gisèle Pelicot case was over, when campaigners across France tried to lift up the taboos that were surrounding sexual abuse.
Pericot was drugged and raped by her ex-husband and dozens of other men over nine years. The men involved were handed texts ranging from three to twenty years.
In another case focusing on Catholic school abuse allegationsthe Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, the French House of Representatives, is investigating 50 years of physical and sexual abuse allegations.
