‘Major Pervert’ French Doctor Jailed For 20 Years For Abusing Hundreds Of Children

Last Updated:May 28, 2025, 21:15 IST

Joel Le Scouarnec kept detailed notes of his crimes and showed no remorse, calling himself a "major pervert" in handwritten records.

This court sketch created on May 23, 2025, shows the defendant, French retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec listening during a hearing in his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault of 299 former patients, at the courthouse of Vannes, western France. (IMAGE: AFP)

A French court on Wednesday sentenced former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec to the maximum 20-year jail term after he admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, over more than two decades, news agency AFP reported.

The 74-year-old, already serving a 15-year sentence for earlier convictions involving four children, including two of his nieces, faced fresh charges in a three-month-long trial that exposed the horrifying scale of his crimes. His case has shaken France and triggered fresh questions about the failures that allowed him to abuse with impunity for years.

Le Scouarnec, described as one of France’s most prolific sex offenders, was found guilty of aggravated rape. The presiding judge, Aude Buresi, imposed the harshest sentence available under French law, where multiple sentences are not added together. He will not be eligible for parole until two-thirds of his sentence is served.

The verdict noted the “particular gravity" of the offences, citing the large number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature of the abuse. However, the court declined a rare request from prosecutors to detain him in a secure psychiatric facility even after release, pointing to his “desire to make amends."

“I am not asking the court for leniency," Le Scouarnec said in his closing statement on Monday.

“Simply grant me the right to become a better person," he said.

His lawyer urged the court to consider the “exceptional" nature of his confession, as Le Scouarnec admitted to all charges.

In a disturbing revelation, the retired surgeon also acknowledged feeling “responsible" for the deaths of two former patients—Mathis Vinet, who died of an overdose in 2021 in what his family believes was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020.

During investigations, authorities uncovered meticulous handwritten notes in which Le Scouarnec detailed his crimes, recording the names, ages and addresses of his victims, along with graphic descriptions of the abuse. In those notes, he described himself as a “major pervert" and a “paedophile."

“And I am very happy about it," he wrote.

‘Forgotten victims’

The prosecutor has said last week that in the United States — where the opposite is the case — Le Scouarnec could have been jailed for “2,000 years".

In this trial, which began in February in Vannes in the western region of Brittany, Le Scouarnec has admitted sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients — 256 of them under 15 — in hospitals between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations.

He was charged with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults.

Survivors of the surgeon’s abuse staged a protest outside the court in Vannes, holding signs such as “Never again" and “I accuse you."

They also held signs representing 355 victims of Le Scouarnec.

That number included “forgotten victims and those whose cases have been dismissed," said Manon Lemoine, one of the victims.

“We want to be together," she said.

Another victim, Celine Mahuteau, on Wednesday sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron saying that France has not implemented a national policy “to prevent paedophilia."

Victims and child rights advocates say the case highlights systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes.

In 2005, he received a four-month suspended prison sentence after investigators linked his credit card to the online purchase of child sexual abuse material.

But Le Scouarnec was neither required to undergo treatment nor barred from practising medicine.

‘Never again’

While Le Scouarnec has asked his victims for forgiveness, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial.

“You are the worst mass paedophile who ever lived," said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, describing Le Scouarnec as an “atomic bomb of paedophilia".

There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact in France they hoped for.

The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele.

But Health Minister Yannick Neuder said on Wednesday he would work with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to ensure that “never again will we find ourselves in a situation where patients and vulnerable children" are exposed to predators.

“What we want to say is never again," he told broadcaster France Info. “How did we get into this situation?"

Location :

Paris, France

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News world ‘Major Pervert’ French Doctor Jailed For 20 Years For Abusing Hundreds Of Children