A French court has sentenced 74-year-old former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec to the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of 299 children over a period spanning more than two decades.
The court in Morbihan, western France, followed the public prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that Le Scouarnec must serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
Le Scouarnec is already serving a 15-year prison sentence handed down in 2020 for the sexual abuse of four children, including two of his nieces. The latest trial, which began in February in Brittany, revealed a long-standing pattern of abuse committed between 1989 and 2014—most often against unconscious or sedated hospital patients. Victims included 158 boys and 141 girls, with an average age of 11.
Accusations of Institutional Failure
Throughout the trial, child protection groups criticized French health authorities for failing to act despite early warning signs. In 2005, Le Scouarnec was convicted for possession of child sexual abuse images—but no action was taken to suspend his medical license or restrict his contact with children. He continued practicing and abusing patients until his 2017 arrest.
“Should Joël Le Scouarnec have been the only one in the defendant’s box?” asked prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger during closing arguments. “More could have been done. Things could have been handled differently—even within the complex web of French bureaucracy, where responsibility is so often passed along until it disappears, with devastating consequences for innocent lives.”
Le Scouarnec confessed to the abuse of all 299 victims represented in the case, as well as other crimes that are now outside the statute of limitations. In a particularly disturbing moment during the trial, he also admitted to sexually abusing his granddaughter—a revelation made in open court in front of her visibly distraught parents.
Despite his 2005 conviction, which resulted in a four-month suspended sentence, Le Scouarnec was appointed as a hospital practitioner just a year later. Child advocacy organizations, many of which have joined the proceedings as civil parties, hope the case will prompt stronger legal safeguards to protect children from institutional abuse.