French health authorities ‘turned blind eye’ to paedophile surgeon accused of raping 300 children

Joel Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in 2020 for rape and sexual abuse in a trial involving four underage victims. Photo / 123RF

France’s health ministry turned a blind eye to a convicted paedophile surgeon charged with raping around 300 children in France’s biggest-ever child sexual abuse case, according to reports.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 72, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2020 for rape and sexual abuse in a trial involving four underage victims, but he faces a separate trial on charges he abused 293 victims in a dozen hospitals between 1986 and 2014. Another 80 cases have passed the statutes of limitations. That makes it the country’s biggest paedophile case.

During the investigation, prosecutors found diaries belonging to the surgeon in which he detailed sex scenes with children, and proclaimed: “I’m a great pervert and am very happy about it.” In court, he showed scant remorse, saying: “I do not ask for forgiveness or compassion ... only the right to become a better man again.”

Under cover of medical acts, the doctor sexually took advantage of children as soon as they were alone in the hospital room, investigators concluded in 2020. He targeted patients so young they might not remember or understand what was happening, they added. He also abused older children in the operating room, when they were asleep or under anesthaesia, according to the diaries.

Tip-off from the FBI

While he has admitted to abusing children, during the second trial he contended that some of the diary entries contained elements of fantasy.

Questions arose during the trial about why nothing came out before and whether some people may have been aware of the alleged abuses. The surgeon had already been sentenced in 2005 to a four-month suspended prison sentence for possession of child pornographic images.

France Info, the state rolling news radio channel, revealed that the French health ministry was made aware of his conviction in 2006 - which came about following a tip-off from the FBI - but failed to act.

His case reportedly triggered “heated debate” in the ministry that year after a psychiatrist colleague at the Quimperlé hospital in western France where he operated stumbled on the existence of his conviction by chance. The colleague informed management and wrote a letter to the regional medical council expressing “doubts about (his) ability to remain completely calm when in contact with young children”.

He was summoned but the council unanimously decided to allow him to keep working with no checks.

In November that year, his conviction finally reached the health ministry’s disciplinary department in Paris. Despite a flurry of emails between civil servants about the “worrying” paedophilia deemed “incompatible” with his functions, the ministry failed to act, said France Info.

‘Mysterious white note’

Some called for him to be banned but a “mysterious white note” that was neither dated nor signed concluded that it was too late to fire him because he had just been awarded a staff post and that his work had received “positive feedback”.

The ministry left it to the hospital to file a complaint, if appropriate, to the medical council, which it failed to do. Le Scouarnec was later able to move to another hospital in the region despite this time informing it of his criminal record.

In 2015, the health ministry even gave the green light to the surgeon to continue his practice beyond the legal retirement limit and the individual who signed the authorisation had handled his dossier in its disciplinary committee, said France Info.

“Joel Le Scouarnec was thus able to continue his career for another 12 years after his conviction. Twelve years in which judges suspect him of abusing 45 fresh victims,” it said.

France’s health minister at the time, Xavier Bertrand, told the radio station he had no knowledge of any alert regarding the surgeon. The current health ministry has not responded.

Le Scouarnec was charged in 2017 after testimony from one of his victims, a six-year-old girl.

The investigation quickly uncovered three other victims.

A date has not yet been set for a second trial.