A general practitioner practicing in Morteau (Doubs) was indicted on Tuesday for rape and sexual assault on 20 patients, said the public prosecutor in Besançon.
The 66-year-old practitioner is being prosecuted for one rape and twenty sexual assaults by a person abusing the authority given to him by his position, and he has been placed under judicial supervision with a ban on practicing, said prosecutor Étienne Manteaux.
The first complaints were filed in January 2024 and the facts denounced extend from April 2023 to February 2024. The gendarmes of Morteau and Pontarlier compiled the list of patients and interviewed more than 200 people.
The majority of complainants are aged 18 to 30
Patients have notably reported that the doctor had positioned himself behind their back while touching their breasts, while they were consulting for a completely different reason, some even claiming to have felt an erection on their back, said Mr. Manteaux.
“These gestures were accompanied by remarks about their plastic and absolutely inappropriate acts of seduction, according to these women in a vulnerable situation after having had to undress, while they came for a completely different reason
,” he said. for follow-up.
Most of the complainants are aged 18 to 30.
“The accused denies everything. He explains that he remained within the strict medical framework and that the patients did not understand the meaning of his therapeutic acts
,” according to the magistrate.
Officially retired, the sixty-year-old still worked a few days a week in a
“short-lived”
practice managed by the town of Morteau to compensate for a shortage of doctors.
“For the moment, there are only patients who have consulted Morteau who have made themselves known. “No one from the doctor's patient base in Étalant (where he worked before his retirement) has come forward
,” said Mr. Manteaux.
“If certain patients consider that they have been victims of such actions, they can report to the gendarmerie
,” he added.