“If I am appearing before you, it’s because one day, when most of these people were just children, I committed hideous acts,” Joël Le Scouarnec told the court in Vannes.

Summary

Retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec admitted to “hideous acts” at the start of France’s largest child sexual abuse trial, involving 299 alleged victims.

Despite a prior conviction for possessing child abuse images, he continued practicing. Victims and associations criticized his admission as insincere.

The trial, highlighting systemic failures in the French medical system, will feature hundreds of witnesses and evidence from Le Scouarnec’s digital diaries.

Victims express feeling marginalized, but some prefer distance from their abuser. The trial is expected to last four months.