Warning: This text accommodates references to suicide and materials readers would possibly discover disturbing
Yearly, on his birthday, Joel Le Scouarnec composed an entry in his diary. First, he would document his age. Then he would write: “I am a paedophile, and I am proud of it.”
To the remainder of the world, he appeared like a revered medical skilled, a surgeon who cared for hundreds of sufferers and supplied assist to their kinfolk. However Le Scouarnec, now 74, hid a darkish secret – his compulsion to abuse kids.
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Former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec
He is now on trial, accused of a litany of intercourse crimes involving 299 alleged victims, virtually all of whom have been his sufferers, and most of whom have been kids. In whole, he is accused of 300 separate offences – 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults – which befell throughout 25 years in additional than a dozen hospitals.
The typical age of his alleged victims was simply 11 years outdated, cut up virtually equally between girls and boys. He was finally stopped in 2017, following investigations that concerned a number of police forces and even the FBI.
It’s a lengthy and horrific record, agonisingly detailed by the prosecution, but it surely boils down to at least one truth – Le Scouarnec is alleged to be essentially the most prolific little one abuser ever apprehended in France and, maybe, in all of Europe.
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Quimperle Hospital
After many years of allegedly abusing sufferers with none repercussions, Le Scouarnec appeared to imagine he was invincible. His crimes lastly got here to mild when his six-year-old neighbour instructed her mom he had sexually abused her whereas she was enjoying within the backyard of her residence, within the city of Jonzac in southwest France.
The investigations that adopted led to his conviction and imprisonment for raping and sexually assaulting 4 younger ladies in 2020. However proof recovered by the police throughout that investigation revealed abuse on a far wider scale.
When the police entered Le Scouarnec’s home, they discovered a scene that was each sinister and stunning. There have been 300,000 indecent images and movies of youngsters (some laborious copies and a few on computer systems), 70 child-sized dolls – a few of which have been chained up – wigs and, crucially, lots of of notebooks and diaries detailing his acts of abuse.
‘This man destroyed my life’
This macabre discovery went on to alter the lives of lots of of people that had been unaware they have been victims of Le Scouarnec’s crimes. Amongst them was Marie*. Now in her late thirties, she was simply 10 years outdated when she was hospitalised affected by acute appendicitis. Joel Le Scouarnec was her surgeon. In his diaries, he wrote about abusing her whereas she was beneath anaesthesia.
For a few years, Marie, like most of the alleged victims, did not know she’d been assaulted, till a go to from the police make clear a sense that one thing had occurred to her physique which she could not clarify.
“This man destroyed my life and the lives of so many children… When I heard I was among the alleged victims, I told myself that’s the missing jigsaw piece,” mentioned Marie. “I was shocked but then I began to make a connection between this and the problems I had experienced, especially regarding my issue with intimacy and relationships with men.”
The FBI raised the alarm
In 2004, as a part of a worldwide investigation into paedophile networks, the FBI discovered proof Le Scouarnec had shared and downloaded pornographic pictures of youngsters by way of an internet site primarily based in america.
The FBI alerted French authorities and the previous surgeon was arrested after which charged with possession of indecent pictures of minors. In 2005, the case was heard in court docket and he was given a four-month suspended sentence. What occurred is a stunning instance of how this physician’s actions have been ignored, leaving him to proceed his alleged abuse.
In 2006, a psychiatrist working on the identical hospital as Le Scouarnec wrote to the administration, expressing concern that the surgeon was practising on kids regardless of having a conviction for sharing pictures on paedophile web sites.
The letter was referred to the ombudsman. An identical letter of concern was despatched by a commerce union representing healthcare staff. However no additional motion was taken.
In 2008, he transferred to practise at one other hospital in Jonzac. The hospital’s director had the surgeon’s file, which contained the paperwork concerning his earlier convictions and letters of concern from colleagues, however selected to make use of him.
That very same yr, an anaesthetist on the identical hospital was convicted of possessing and sharing indecent pictures of youngsters. He, too, was additionally allowed to proceed to practise on the hospital and deal with younger sufferers.
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Lawyer Francesca Satta represents a number of the victims
‘He may have been stopped’
“Nobody will attack a high-ranking surgeon,” mentioned Francesca Satta, a lawyer representing a few of Le Scouarnec’s alleged victims, including that the surgeon was “overlooked” due to his place.
She added: “The evidence was there. There were searches at his home and they found indecent images of children. The diaries existed but were not discovered… he could have been stopped.”
If, in 2006, he’d been prevented from treating kids, there could be no less than 20 fewer alleged victims on this case.
Amongst them was a bit boy named Mathis Vinet.
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Mathis Vinet’s grandparents have spoken out
His grandparents, Roland and Mauricette, welcomed us into their residence with heat handshakes and cups of espresso. Their lounge was full of books and household images. However they have been on edge; burdened by grief and anger, combined with a determined want for justice.
Their grandson, Mathis, was simply 10 years outdated when he was taken to hospital with abdomen pains and got here beneath the care of Joel Le Scouarnec.
“He admitted our grandson and examined him,” Roland recalled, including that the surgeon mentioned Mathis wanted to remain in hospital in a single day. “He said if anything urgent happened we would be alerted.”
Le Scouarnec instructed the household to go away Mathis in his care. That night time, he allegedly abused the boy as he lay in mattress. His grandparents nonetheless have the discharge paper, signed by the previous surgeon.
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Roland and Mauricette say their grandson was abused
That day modified Mathis utterly, based on his household.
The younger boy who loved serving to his grandfather within the backyard was changed by a troubled youth whose life unravelled as he fell into dependancy.
Like a lot of the different alleged victims, he remained unaware that he’d been attacked by Le Scouarnec till instructed by the police, greater than a decade later.
“There was a knock at the door,” Mauricette remembers. “Mathis was alone. He’d started using drugs, so he thought he might be in trouble. When they left, having told him… his world came crashing in around him. He had flashbacks and called us the next day to say he was in a bad place.”
“He took drugs to make himself feel better… but it didn’t work.”
On the desk, there’s a image of Mathis as a boy, beaming. In later photos, he appears to be like extra sombre, as if he has turned in on himself.
In 2021, he took his personal life, aged simply 24 years outdated.
‘To name him a monster is an understatement’
Le Scouarnec would not deny his abuse of most of the younger kids about whom he wrote in his diaries. He instructed investigators he did all the things he wrote about, however did not realise what number of kids there have been.
“We can call him a monster but it’s an understatement,” mentioned Satta, who has labored throughout circumstances involving violent murderers and infamous criminals. “He has just one thing on his mind, 24/7, and that is sexually abusing young children.”
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A letter with Joel Le Scouarnec’s signature
However there’s one other troubling unknown on this case. Throughout the trial, 299 alleged victims will air their accusations towards Le Scouarnec in court docket, however there could possibly be extra.
At the least two years of diaries disappeared, which implies extra former sufferers of Le Scouarnec may nonetheless be unaware of what occurred to them as kids.
The case towards the previous surgeon includes so many victims, {that a} regular courtroom will not be large enough. An annexe will probably be opened to accommodate the lots of of victims, attorneys, members of the family, journalists and members of the general public who will observe the proceedings over the subsequent 4 months.
The victims will collect in a lecture theatre to observe the trial on an enormous display screen. It’s the form of room that you just would possibly discover anyplace, however as you go searching, on the lots of of seats, you might be reminded that every considered one of these has been allotted to an alleged sufferer.
There are such a lot of questions that have not been answered. How may so many possibilities to cease him have been missed? Does French society have an inbuilt worry of exposing sexual crimes? Did Le Scouarnec actually act alone, or did he have a community with others?
However, above all, will these victims really feel a way of closure if the allegations towards Le Scouarnec are upheld?
For Marie, it is about defending others. “This man is a predator of children. His place is in prison and he needs to stay there.”
Many of the alleged victims have been kids after they final noticed Joel Le Scouarnec. Now they return as adults, to confront him in court docket.
A number of the ache they suffered as a result of abuse in a hospital might but be healed by the punishment of a court docket.
*identify has been modified
