Relief on the one hand, enormous frustration on the other.
On the third day of his trial for rape and sexual assault on four victims before the assizes of Charente-Maritime, Joël Le Scouarnec conceded confessions that some no longer dared to hope, as this pedophile has benefited from a complacent silence for over thirty years old.
"Cold", "closed", with a "solid shell" according to the description of several lawyers who attend the hearing behind closed doors since Monday, the former digestive surgeon ended up "letting a semblance of humanity filter through “This Wednesday, reports Me Delphine Driguez, lawyer for two victims, nieces of the surgeon.
Confronted with the eldest of the sisters, now in their thirties, Joël Le Scouarnec let out a few tears, admitting to having raped them both - although he is only tried for sexual assault on one of them.
"They are finally breathing, after having held their breath all night," continues Driguez.
Tuesday evening, Joël Le Scouarnec had indeed made a first breach in his line of defense by recognizing his perverse actions on three other victims, who attend the hearing ... but for whom the facts are prescribed because of their seniority.
"This recognition is important for them, even though the accused will not be convicted of the rapes and assaults of which they were victims", underlines Me Nathalie Bucquet, lawyer for the three young women and the association Innocence in danger. .
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“Everything they say is true,” then launched Joël Le Scouarnec, suggesting that this was also the case for his two nieces, which he confirmed this Wednesday morning while citing lapses of memory.
Difficult indeed to support the opposite as his own writings are so explicit.
Seized in search, his diaries allowed to confuse him for 312 other victims over the course of his hospital career, facts which are the subject of a parallel investigation.
To corner him, many extracts from his notebooks were read at the hearing, the abject content of which upset the investigators, as confirmed by a gendarme who came to give evidence on Tuesday, with tears in her eyes.
But, questioned for more than two hours this Wednesday afternoon about his little neighbor from Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), then 6 years old, Joël Le Scouarnec did not let go.
If he does not deny showing himself naked in front of her, he denies the rape… absent from the notebooks.
"He stayed upright in his boots"
“It conforms to his profile as a strategist, analysis, fatalist, Me Céline Astolfe, lawyer for the Children's Foundation, also a civil party.
He is content to acquiesce to incontestable writings and continues to deny the other facts, in particular those committed on his little neighbor.
This is a terrible situation for this girl now aged 10, who was already responsible for the discovery of this whole affair, ”regrets the lawyer.
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Me Francesca Satta, lawyer for the parents of the girl, is even more direct: “He remained upright in his boots while continuing to deny the obviousness which jumps in his face.
The court will decide ”, tackles the penalist.
The verdict is expected this Thursday evening, the 70th birthday of Joël Le Scouarnec.
He faces twenty years in prison.
