Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, is accused of raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 former patients. Most of the victims were children and many of them were unconscious at the time. He allegedly committed the sexual violence between 1989 and 2014 when he worked at a dozen medical institutions in western France. The former doctor is already in prison after being sentenced in December 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. 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. 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 Pelimot.. The case made her a feminist hero worldwide and will have an immense impact at home and abroad, say analysts and victims.. A separate investigation has been opened by regional prosecutors for \”failure to prevent a crime or offence against the integrity of persons\”, though it is not yet targeting any individual or institution.
