His name is associated with the largest pedophile case in France: Joël Le Scouarnec, a 70-year-old former digestive surgeon, was indicted last October in an extraordinary investigation listing 312 victims. Tried for a first series of facts by the Assize Court of Charente-Maritime in Saintes, he was sentenced on December 3 to fifteen years in prison for rape and sexual assault committed on four young girls: two nieces, a patient aged 4 years old at the time and a little neighbor. He had appealed and the hearing had even been set for November 15 to 19… before the accused finally gave it up.
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He did not want to revive this trial to the civil parties", even if he "still contests" the acts of rape on his neighbor Jonzac, thus explained Me Thibaut Kurzawa to France Info on July 30. It was the denunciation of this child, and the search that followed, which had allowed the arrest of Joël Le Scouarnec in 2017 and the discovery of his diaries, which had then confused him.
“What a relief, after months of anguish to apprehend this new audience! rejoices Me Delphine Driguez, lawyer for the two nieces. His condemnation becomes final. Whatever happens, he will die guilty. At the Saintes trial, Joël Le Scouarnec had admitted for the first time to having raped them both, but had denied all the facts not transcribed in the notebooks. "This withdrawal resonates like long-awaited confessions", tackles Me Céline Astolfe, civil party on behalf of the Children's Foundation.