French surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, already serving a 15-year prison sentence for child abuse, went on trial on Monday accused of sexually assaulting nearly 300 patients, most of them children, over several decades. The 74-year-old, who continued practising medicine despite a 2005 conviction for possessing child abuse images and repeated warnings from colleagues, faces up to 20 additional years in prison if found guilty.
“I’ve done hideous things,” Le Scouarnec told the court as his trial opened, adding that he is “perfectly aware these wounds cannot be erased or healed”.
Read moreFrench former surgeon admits to ‘vast majority’ of cases in historic child sexual abuse trial
Held at the Criminal Court of Morbihan in Brittany, the new trial centres on allegations that Le Scouarnec assaulted or raped 299 patients, primarily while they were under general anaesthesia, between 1989 and 2014. Of the victims, 256 were under the age of 15, with the youngest just one year old.
Le Scouarnec was first convicted in 2020 for abusing four children, including two of his nieces. However, his ability to continue practising medicine until his retirement despite early red flags has drawn sharp criticism of France’s medical regulatory bodies, particularly the Order of Physicians, which is now a civil party in the case.
“How many people knew he was a paedophile and let him practise medicine?” one victim asked AFP. “They knew and they did nothing.”
Systemic failures under scrutiny
Le Scouarnec was flagged by the FBI in 2004 for accessing child abuse images online while he was working in Lorient, a city in Britanny. A year later, a French court handed him a suspended four-month sentence. By then, he had already moved to a city 20 kilometres away in Quimperlé, where he was welcomed as a much-needed surgeon.
Psychiatrist Thierry Bonvalot, who worked with Le Scouarnec at the local hospital, raised concerns in 2006 after learning of his conviction.
“He described surgery using so many sexual metaphors that I was shocked. He admitted he had been sentenced for child pornography,” Bonvalot told AFP. “I realised he was dangerous and asked him to resign. He refused.”
Bonvalot wrote to the Order of Physicians, which regulates France’s medical profession, questioning Le Scouarnec’s ability “to remain completely calm when treating young children” in view of his “legal past”.
However, no action was taken. Instead, the hospital promoted Le Scouarnec to head of surgery, with the director describing him as a “serious and competent” doctor with “excellent relations both with patients and their families, as well as with staff”.
A report questioning his moral fitness to practise medicine reached the health ministry in 2007 after the “concerning” death of a patient on his operation table. However, due to a government reshuffle, no action was taken. Le Scouarnec continued working in Brittany before moving to Jonzac in southwestern France in 2008, where he remained until his retirement in 2017.
It was only in 2017, when a 6-year-old girl accused him of rape, that police uncovered extensive diaries detailing decades of abuse.
‘Illegitimate and irresponsible’
The Order of Physicians has faced mounting criticism for its failure to act on early warnings about Le Scouarnec. Victims and medical associations have condemned the organisation’s inaction as reckless.
“We believe that the constitution of a civil party is illegitimate and irresponsible, not to say insulting in view of [the Order of Physicians’] inaction since 2006,” a group of doctors’ unions and associations said in a statement ahead of the trial.
The Order, which did not accept FRANCE 24’s request for comment on the case, said it will “reserve its comments for the time of the hearing”.
In a separate statement, it pledged to fight against sexual violence in medicine. “In recent years, the Order of Physicians has undertaken reforms to strengthen vigilance and coordination with the judiciary. Such acts should never have happened and must never happen again,” it said.
However, a 2019 report by the Court of Auditors found that the organisation failed to handle sexual misconduct cases “with sufficient rigour”. Between 2014 and 2017, 43 percent of complaints were dismissed, and only 12 percent led to disbarment.
Doctors ‘can’t be neutral’
The case has reignited calls for reforms to France’s medical ethics codes, which critics say discourage doctors from reporting abuse. Those who speak out risk legal consequences for violating professional “fraternity” rules.
“There have been cases where professionals reported an offence and were then sued for breaching professional solidarity. This has to stop. Doctors who report sexual assault must be protected,” said Dr. Gilles Lazimi, a general practitioner and member of the High Council for Equality Between Women and Men.
The Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children has repeatedly called for reforms, warning in 2022 and again in 2024 that doctors who report abuse risk professional retaliation.
The commission also urged clarification “on the obligation for doctors to report child victims of sexual violence”.
“A doctor can’t be neutral. He can’t remain silent, can’t fail to act. If he stays silent, he is necessarily on the side of the aggressor,” Lazimi said.
The trial is expected to last several weeks, with the verdict likely to have far-reaching implications for the regulatory framework for French medicine.
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