French doctor, already convicted of child sex abuse, faces hundreds more charges

Pariis: Dr. Joël Le Scouarnec was a veteran surgeon when police burst into his home in 2017 searching for evidence after a girl who lived next door accused him of exposing himself to her.

What they discovered in his home, in a small town in western France, went well beyond anything to do with the girl's case. Rooms were cluttered with boxes packed with sex toys and more than 20 dolls. One doll, standing 3-foot-3, was dressed in a white nightgown and laid out on a couch.

They also found computers and more than two dozen hard drives filled with child sexual abuse imagery.

Le Scouarnec, now 74, was eventually convicted of raping the child for penetrating her body with his finger, which reflects the definition of rape in France, and for raping and sexually assaulting three other women when they were girls, including two of his nieces. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

But that was only the beginning of the story. Months into the investigation, a police officer methodically going through the hard drives discovered hundreds of pages of the doctor's personal diaries as well as two spreadsheets. His diaries elaborately detailed the sexual abuse of individual children, and the spreadsheets listed many of their names, ages, addresses and synopses of the abuse they suffered, according to the investigative judge's summary of the case.

Starting Monday, based on that discovery, Le Scouarnec will be tried on charges of raping and sexually assaulting 299 people over 25 years -- almost all his patients, almost all children at the time of the suspected abuse. The rape charges are mostly related to penetration with fingers.

The trial, which will take place in the coastal town of Vannes, in Brittany, is considered the biggest pedophilia case in French history.

To make space for all the people listed as victims and their families, 65 lawyers, more than 460 accredited journalists and the public, the courthouse has requisitioned two rooms in a nearby law school building, along with a 450-seat lecture hall. A psychologist and five support dogs will be on hand.

The prosecutor in the case, Stéphane Kellenberger, said Le Scouarnec faced a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted. (There are no consecutive sentences in France.) It is unclear if he would serve that on top of the 15 years he is currently serving.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.