One accused, 299 victims: French surgeon on trial for sexual assaults

A former surgeon goes on trial later in February charged with raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 former patients, most of them children and many of them unconscious at the time, over quarter of a century across western France.

A former surgeon goes on trial later in February charged with raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 former patients, most of them children and many of them unconscious at the time, over quarter of a century across western France.

The sheer scale and horror of the allegations against Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, means his four-month trial, due to start on February 24, is likely to have an immense impact at home and abroad.

And it will have added resonance coming two months after Frenchman Dominique Pelicot was convicted of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated then-wife Gisele Pelicot, a case that made her a feminist hero worldwide.

In this case, Le Scouarnec is the sole defendant accused of crimes against hundreds of victims.

The trial in the city of Vannes in Brittany will be held in public but seven days of testimony from victims who were targeted while minors will be behind closed doors.

“Mr. Le Scouarnec has generally acknowledged his involvement in many of the events in question” as well as his “concealment strategies”, said regional prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger.

The average age of the victims is 11 but the former surgeon is also accused of raping a one-year-old and sexual assaulting a 70-year-old.