A former surgeon on trial in France for sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most under 15, has admitted guilt for all 299 victims, one of his lawyers said on Thursday.
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Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has been on trial in the western city of Vannes since early March, in one of the country’s largest child sex abuse cases.
He is charged with assaulting or raping the patients, many while under anaesthesia or waking up after operations, at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014.
“I have a duty to tell the truth,” Le Scoaurnec said during Thursday’s trial behind closed doors, his lawyer Maxime Tessier told Agence France-Presse.
Tessier said he had asked Le Scouarnec if he admitted that the numerous people mentioned in notebooks seized by investigators were “all potential victims of his acts” and he said “Yes”.
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“I asked him if he agreed that the 299 charges were [criminal] offences and he said ‘Yes’,” Tessier said.
Until now, Le Scouarnec had only admitted to his guilt on a case-by-case basis as the proceedings progressed, with attention focused on the notebooks in which he meticulously recorded the abuse he inflicted on his victims.