The trial of a former dentist accused of having committed three rapes and 23 sexual assaults on patients during acupuncture sessions in his office began on Monday March 27 in Orléans before the Loiret Assize Court.
The trial is scheduled for ten days because facing Dr. Stéphane Schoener, 23 alleged victims, some of whom were minors at the time of the events, are represented on the bench of the civil parties.
Some of them were present on Monday.
A certain social status
The sexagenarian is accused of having taken advantage of acupuncture sessions, used in particular as an alternative method to soothe patients particularly stressed by dental care, to commit sexual assaults which could go as far as rape by digital penetration.
When reading the report, the president of the court Sébastien Evesque mentioned the difficulty for some complainants to testify earlier, in front of a man with a certain social status.
The dentist has indeed practiced for more than thirty years in his practice in Chalette-sur-Loing (Loiret) and at the hospital in Montargis.
Well inserted in the Montargo area, he was also a member of a local Masonic lodge.
Psychologists and psychiatrists have described an intelligent man, suffering from no mental illness.
A spy camera
This father of four children appeared calm and dressed in a white shirt in the dock.
He disputed the facts during the procedure, acknowledging however massages and photos taken without the consent of the victims.
During the investigation, a search of the cabinet indeed allowed the police to discover images of a sexual nature on the computer of the accused: the dentist taking photos using a spy camera.
Doctor Schoener is being prosecuted in particular for rape of a minor by a person in authority, sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor by a person in authority, sexual assault with torture or act of barbarism, sexual assault and rape by a person abusing the authority conferred on him his function.
The trial is scheduled until April 7.
