The surgeon who raped 300 underage patients was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

ParisThe former French surgeon who committed sexual abuse and rape against at least 299 of his patients Joël Le Scouarnec, most of whom were minors at the time of the incident, was sentenced this Wednesday to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence provided by law for sexual crimes in France. The sentence also includes 15 years of socio-judicial monitoring upon his release and a ban on practicing medicine or working with minors. The sentence specifies that he must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before applying for parole.

In reality, a single aggravated rape would have already sentenced him to 20 years, but according to French law, sentences cannot be accumulated in a single trial. This fact means that the punishment is not harsher despite the large number of victims and the seriousness of the crimes. "In the United States, he could be sentenced to 4,110 years in prison," stated Attorney General Stéphane Kellenberger on the penultimate day of the trial. Furthermore, since he is currently serving a 15-year sentence, also for sexual offenses, according to the French Penal Code, the two sentences do not add up. He will only serve the higher one. This means that, in practice, since he has already been in prison for some time, he will be eligible for parole in six years.

The court has rejected the prosecution's request to sentence the former surgeon to a period of confinement in a social-health and judicial center upon his release from prison. These are centers reserved for criminals at high risk of reoffending, where they receive medical and psychological care to try to reduce their dangerousness. This decision, coupled with the fact that the doctor could be released from prison in a few years, has been a cold shower for the victims. "I feel like I've fought for six years for nothing," said one of the victims, Amélie Lévêque.

Le Scouarnec, 74, has been convicted of sexual assaults committed between 1989 and 2014 in various hospitals in the Brittany region. During the trial, he admitted all the violations and abusesThe victims were his patients—256 were under 15 years old—and he often took advantage of the fact that they were still under anesthesia after surgery to commit the assaults. On other occasions, especially with young children, he committed the sexual crimes in hospital rooms while the children were recovering from digestive surgery.

Although there are hundreds of victims, he was never caught in the act while working as a doctor, and no family member, victim, or coworker ever reported him. This explains why he was able to commit the rapes for so many years in hospitals. "He was very cautious," he explained during the trial.

Conviction for pedophilia

Although there were no complaints, the trial has established that the abuse could have been stopped earlier if not for administrative malfunctions. The former digestive surgeon had been convicted of pedophilia for downloading sexual images of minors in 2005. Despite the conviction, he was able to continue working with children, and no hospital, despite knowing his criminal record, decided not to hire him as a pediatric surgeon.

He was discreet when it came to abusing his patients, but he was less discreet when he decided to write down all the sexual assaults with details, names, and dates. This is what allowed the police to uncover the worst sexual predator in French history. The police found the notebooks where he had written everything down when they arrested Le Scouarnec for raping a six-year-old neighbor in her garden. The minor told the parents, who reported him. During a search of the former surgeon's home, officers found the notebooks and discovered that he had been raping his patients for decades.

Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2020 for the rape of four girls, including his neighbor and two nieces. During the trial for the 299 rapes, the doctor confessed to also abusing his granddaughter.