A French court on Wednesday sentenced former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, to the maximum 20 years in prison for raping and sexually abusing nearly 299 patients—most of them children—over a span of more than two decades in one of the country’s worst child abuse scandals.
The criminal court in Morbihan, western France, followed the public prosecutor’s recommendation. It ruled that Le Scouarnec must serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before being eligible for release, citing the continued danger he poses.
However, the court stopped short of imposing post-sentence preventive detention, a rare legal measure that would have allowed authorities to confine him in a secure facility even after his sentence ends.
The decision drew immediate backlash from victims and advocacy groups. “It’s the maximum sentence, certainly,” said Solène Podevin Favre, head of a support organization for survivors of incest and sexual abuse. “But it’s the least we could have hoped for. Yet in six years, he could potentially be released. It’s staggering.”
Le Scouarnec has been jailed since 2017 and is currently serving a separate 15-year sentence issued in 2020 for assaulting four children, including two nieces. Under French law, sentences run concurrently, so only the additional years will be served after the first sentence ends.
The trial, which opened in February, exposed a pattern of abuse carried out between 1989 and 2014. Most of Le Scouarnec’s victims were unconscious or sedated patients in hospitals. The average age was just 11.
French Surgeon Jailed for Abusing 300+ Children!
Will justice expose failures that let abuse go unchecked?
VANNES – Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, a former surgeon, gets 20 years for 300 child sex abuse cases, including 111 rapes, in French hospitals from 1989-2014.
Victims,… pic.twitter.com/FNoxurlAHx
— Snap Media (@SnapMediaLive) May 28, 2025
He used the guise of medical care to assault children in isolated hospital rooms, disguising abuse as clinical treatment. His handwritten journals, discovered by police, detailed the assaults in graphic language and became central to the prosecution’s case.
Investigators initially uncovered the abuse in 2017 after a six-year-old girl told her mother that a neighbor had exposed himself and touched her.
A search of Le Scouarnec’s home uncovered more than 300,000 images, 650 video files involving child and animal abuse, and journals in which he identified himself as a pedophile.
Many victims were unaware they had been assaulted until contacted by police after their names appeared in his notes. Others only realized he had treated them after reviewing medical records. Two of his victims died by suicide before the trial began.
During the proceedings, Le Scouarnec admitted to all charges and confessed to other assaults no longer prosecutable. In a devastating moment, he acknowledged abusing his own granddaughter—an admission made in front of her parents.
Although his demeanor appeared calm, some victims described him as cold and detached. The court noted he accepted responsibility and expressed a desire to make amends, though many found his apologies hollow.
Advocacy groups condemned the inaction of health authorities, who were informed in 2005 of Le Scouarnec’s child pornography conviction.
No steps were taken to revoke his license or limit his access to children, allowing him to continue working in hospitals for over a decade.
While the case has sparked debate and outrage, victims say it has not led to meaningful change. “This trial, which could have served as an open-air laboratory to expose the serious failings of our institutions, seems to leave no mark on the government, the medical community, or society at large,” a group of survivors said in a statement.
New allegations emerged during the trial, including further sexually abuse of the French surgeon’s granddaughter. A third trial is expected in the coming years.
