300 victims of pedophile surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec
The story of pediatric surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec shocked not only France, but the entire world. Instead of the bright image of a talented doctor and intellectual, an expert on opera and classical literature, the terrible image of a pedophile and rapist was revealed. At first, no one wanted to believe this nightmare, so thousands of people stood up for the doctor. It turned out to be difficult to accept the truth, because it was about children - the surgeon's little patients. Now that the criminal is on trial, Le Scouarnec no longer evokes sympathy. Everyone hopes that the punishment will be as severe as possible.
Joël Le Scouarnec was born in 1950 in the provinces, to a poor family. His parents had to sacrifice a lot to pay for his education at the University of Paris. After receiving his diploma, the young doctor began working as an abdominal surgeon in the town of Loches in western France.
Medicine became Le Scouarnec's main passion, and almost his entire life was spent in the clinic. He even met his wife at work - she was a nurse, Marie-France. After the wedding, the couple had three sons. The doctor's career developed rapidly: he received increasingly lucrative offers. From the mid-1990s to 2008, the surgeon managed to change several hospitals.
Le Scouarnec's last place of work was a clinic in Jonzac, near Bordeaux. He enjoyed the respect and authority of his colleagues, who always listened to his opinion. The doctor's reputation seemed impeccable: everyone saw him as a talented surgeon, a loving husband and a caring father.
The first alarm bells rang in the early 2000s. At the time, renowned doctor Joel Le Scouarnec not only performed surgeries but also consulted on websites dedicated to child abuse. That was when the FBI, together with European intelligence agencies, dismantled a major international network engaged in the distribution of child pornography.
As a result of the operation, law enforcement officials obtained data on thousands of visitors to banned websites. Among them was Le Scouarnec. The French authorities notified him of the offense, and in 2005 the doctor received a four-month suspended sentence for downloading child pornography. But he was not sent for treatment, and the clinic where he worked with children was not even informed of his addictions.
But in 2006, psychiatrist Thierry Bonvalot, a colleague of Le Scouarnec, reported several suspicious cases involving young patients to the hospital management. At the same time, it became clear that the surgeon had a criminal record. The information was passed on to the relevant body in the Department of Medicine, which delegated the decision to the director of the clinic. In the end, he decided that viewing child pornography was not sufficient grounds for firing the hospital's best specialist.
It later emerged that the family knew about Joel's secret vices. His sister Anna confessed that he had corrupted her young daughters. When the truth came out, the rapist cried and crawled on his knees, begging for forgiveness. Anna felt sorry for her brother and did not go to the police. Moreover, she continued to communicate with him as if nothing had happened.
The doctor's ex-wife, Marie-France, claimed that she had not known about his inclinations until the pedophile was arrested in 2017. However, during one of the interrogations, she recalled that she had once found a piece of paper with shocking names of porn films in the trash. But then she preferred to remain silent and did not tell him anything. Le Scouarnec himself wrote in his diary back in 1996 that his wife had exposed him.
The couple broke up in the early 2000s, which came as a surprise to everyone. Soon the surgeon's name surfaced in a case involving child pornography websites. It is worth noting that Joël and Marie-France lived separately, but did not file for divorce for a long time. Marie-France even started a new relationship, but Le Scouarnec continued to maintain good relations with her, her new partner and children. Moreover, Marie-France had full access to his bank account, where the doctor's salary and pension were deposited.
In 2017, Joël Le Scouarnec was arrested. The reason was a complaint from a six-year-old neighbor girl, who said that the doctor showed her his genitals and touched her intimate parts. The court in the city of Jonzac qualified these actions as rape. If not for this incident, the doctor's terrible crimes in the hospital could have continued for many more years.
In the spring of 2017, investigators raided Le Scouarnec's home and found thousands of child pornography photos, hundreds of videos, and a collection of dolls and sex toys. Diaries were found under the parquet floor in his office, in which the pedophile detailed scenes of sexual abuse of girls and boys in the workplace.
In his notes, he included not only the dates of the crimes, but also the names of the victims and chilling details. Most of the children were victims of violence either before or after surgery, when they were under anesthesia. The investigation established that between 1990 and 2017, the number of Le Scouarnec's victims reached 200 people.
But it is extremely difficult to prove such crimes. That is why in 2020 the doctor was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting four girls. The maniac's victims were recognized as a six-year-old neighbor, two nieces whom he raped from 1989 to 1999, and a former patient. At the time of the crime in 1993, she was only four years old.
Joel Le Scouarnec did not deny his guilt and said in court that he regretted what he had done. By the time the verdict was announced, the investigation had established 312 episodes committed since 1986. The victims were 164 boys and 148 girls, 265 of whom were under 15 years old.
On February 24, 2025, a new trial of the hospital pedophile began. The court charged Le Scouarnec with other crimes that were not considered during the first trial. The trial of the 73-year-old surgeon-rapist is the largest of its kind in French history. In 2024, the country was shocked by the details of the case of Gisèle Pélicot, who was raped more than 90 times with the complicity of her husband.
The story of Joël Le Scouarnec is a horrific example of how a person in a position of trust and power can commit horrific crimes for years without being punished. This case once again raises important questions: how can such crimes be prevented and why do the systems that are supposed to protect children so often fail? What measures do you think need to be strengthened to ensure that something like this never happens again? Share your thoughts in the comments.