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The Sun
4 days ago
- The Sun
Lawyer who defended ‘worst paedophile in history' who raped hundreds of children dies in suicide just weeks after trial
THE lawyer for a French surgeon dubbed one of country's worst sex offenders in history has died in an apparent suicide, a prosecutor has said. Maxime Tessier, 34, had defended Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, who admitted at his trial to sexually assaulting or raping hundreds of patients between 1989 and 2014. 2 Many of Le Scouarnec's 298 victims were children. He was sentenced by a French court to to 20 years in prison back in May. Frederic Teillet, chief prosecutor in the western French city of Rennes, said that an investigation had been started into the lawyer's death. "Everything points to suicide," Teillet said. Catherine Glon, his associate, said he "had a very high regard for justice and was therefore very demanding towards himself." Tessier had been one of two lawyers defending Le Scouarnec, who is considered one of the most egregious sex offenders in French criminal history.
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Lawyer who defended ‘worst paedophile in history' who raped hundreds of children dies in suicide just weeks after trial
THE lawyer for a French surgeon dubbed one of country's worst sex offenders in history has died in an apparent suicide, a prosecutor has said. Maxime Tessier, 34, had defended Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, who admitted at his trial to sexually assaulting or raping hundreds of patients between 1989 and 2014. 2 Lawyer of retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec, Maxime Tessier waits in the Criminal Court Credit: AFP 2 Le Scouarnec, who is considered one of the most egregious sex offenders in French criminal history Credit: France 3 Bretagne Many of Le Scouarnec's 298 victims were children. He was sentenced by a French court to to 20 years in prison back in May. Frederic Teillet, chief prosecutor in the western French city of Rennes, said that an investigation had been started into the lawyer's death. "Everything points to suicide," Teillet said. Catherine Glon, his associate, said he "had a very high regard for justice and was therefore very demanding towards himself." Tessier had been one of two lawyers defending Le Scouarnec, who is considered one of the most egregious sex offenders in French criminal history .
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Lawyer who defended depraved surgeon dubbed France's worst paedophile 'kills himself' weeks after his 'devil in a white coat' client was jailed for raping 298 patients
A lawyer who defended a surgeon dubbed France 's worst paedophile has died in an apparent suicide, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. Maxime Tessier, 34, represented the disgraced Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, who confessed at his trial to sexually assaulting or raping 298 patients between 1989 and 2014, many of them children. Everything points to suicide,' Frederic Teillet, chief prosecutor in the western French city of Rennes, said of the lawyer's death, adding that an investigation had been opened. Tessier, a father of two young children, 'had a very high regard for justice and was therefore very demanding towards himself', said Catherine Glon, his associate. 'We are obviously in shock', she added. He was one of two lawyers defending Le Scouarnec, one of the most infamous sex predators in French criminal history. Child rights advocates say the case had highlighted systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes. A prosecutor in the case called the former doctor 'the devil... dressed in a white coat'. He abused many victims while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. A French court sentenced Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison in May. His offences took place between 1989 and 2014, while other alleged crimes were not prosecute because they happened too long ago. During a three-month trial held in Vannes, the court heard how Le Scourarnec mainly abused patients while they were still under anaesthetic or slowly waking up following operations. Thomas Delaby, a barrister representing one of his victims, told Le Scourarnec he is 'the worst mass paedophile who ever lived' and 'an atomic bomb of paedophilia. Your victims will never forgive you'. Speaking just before the verdict, Le Scourarnec said: 'I'm not asking the court for leniency. Simply grant me the right to become a better person.' The defendant also explained how he had caused the the deaths of at least two of his victims. Le Scouarnec said: 'I am responsible for the deaths of Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021' and Alan Roux, who was found hanged at his home in 2020. Lawyer Tessier, asked the court at the time to take into account the 'exceptional' nature of the surgeon's confession. In turn, prosecutors who had heard Le Scouarnec described as 'France's worst ever paedophile' said he was 'a devil' and there was 'a very high risk' of him re-offending if ever allowed out of his cell. Stéphane Kellenberger, the Attorney General, said his proven crimes were committed against 158 males and 141 females, with an average age of 11. Le Scouarnec had also kept a record of his crimes, documenting the victims' names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse. In his notes, the doctor described himself as a 'major pervert' and a 'paedophile'. 'And I am very happy about it,' he recorded. People demonstrated with posters reading 'No excuse for abuses', left, and 'How many more?', right, ahead of the verdict in the trial of Joel Le Scouarnec The graphic details allowed the police to track down his victims as most had no memory of the abuse as they were still unconscious. The verdict said the jury came to their decision after taking 'into account that the acts committed are of particular gravity due to the number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature' of the crimes. Requesting a 'maximum possible sentence of twenty years' for Le Scouarnec, Mr Kellenberger said there needed to be 'additional security measures,' because of the danger Le Scourarnec still posed. The surgeon practised for decades until his retirement in 2017, despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children. His wife, Marie-France Le Scouarnec, was also portrayed as a ruthless accomplice, while denying any wrongdoing. She spent her days taking lovers and going to aqua-aerobics, while her once highly respected surgeon husband repeatedly attacked children, it was alleged. Ms Le Scouarnec, the mother of his three sons, lived with him throughout that time, and has always denied knowing what he was doing. His wife, Marie-France Le Scouarnec, was also portrayed as a ruthless accomplice, while denying any wrongdoing But Patrick Le Scouarnec, the 70-year-old brother of the defendant, told the court that she was being untruthful. 'There is another person who could have ensured that my brother was arrested – it is his wife, Marie-France,' said Mr Le Scouarnec. Victims of Le Scouarnec have also accused Ms Le Scouarnec of covering up his 'paedocriminal activities' for decades. Ms Le Scouarnec said: 'I wondered how I could have not noticed anything. It's a terrible betrayal that he committed against me and my children.'
BBC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Joel Le Scouarnec: Prolific French paedophile's sentence leaves victims appalled
The victims of prolific French paedophile Joel Le Scouarnec have expressed their dismay that the former surgeon's 20-year prison sentence does not include preventive detention - meaning he could be released from jail in the early 74-year-old was found guilty on Tuesday of sexually abusing hundreds of people, most of them underage patients of his, over decades. Over the course of the trial he had confessed to committing 111 rapes crimes and 188 sexual assaults, and was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in jail. Prosecutors - who dubbed Le Scouarnec "a devil in a white coat" - had asked the court to take the extremely rare provision to hold him in a centre for treatment and supervision even after release, called preventative detention. But the judge rejected this demand, arguing Le Scouarnec's age and his "desire to make amends" had been taken into Scouarnec will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence before being eligible for parole. But because he has already served seven years due to a previous conviction for the rape and sexual assault of four children, he may be eligible for parole by lawyer, Maxime Tessier, pointed out that saying Le Scouarnec could be released then was "inaccurate", as parole is not tantamout a his victims - many of whom assiduously attended the three-month-long trial in Vannes, northern France - are lamenting the sentence. "For a robbery you risk 30 years. But the punishment for hundreds of child rapes is lighter?" one victim told Le Monde. The president of a child advocacy group, Solène Podevin Favre, said that she might have expected the verdict "to be less lenient" and to include a post-sentence preventative detention."It's the maximum sentence, certainly," she said. "But it's the least we could have hoped for. Yet in six years, he could potentially be released. It's staggering."Marie Grimaud, one of the lawyers representing the victims, told reporters that while she "intellectually" understood the verdict, "symbolically" she could not. Another lawyer, Francesca Satta, said that she felt 20 years was too short a time given the number of victims in the case. "It is time for the law to change so we can have more appropriate sentences," she in her judgement read out to the court, Judge Aude Burési said that, while the court had "heard perfectly the demands from the plaintiffs that Le Scouarnec should never be released from jail, it would be demagogic and fanciful to let them believe that would be possible"."In fact," she added, "the rule of law does not allow for that to happen."One of Le Scouarnec's victims, Amélie Lévêque, said the verdict had "shocked" her and that she would have liked preventative detention to be imposed. "How many victims would it take? A thousand?"She argued that French law needed to change and allow for harsher sentences to take into account the serial nature of crimes. Similar complaints were raised in the aftermath of the Pelicot trial last December, in which Dominique Pelicot was found guilty of drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, and recruited dozens of men to abuse her over almost a decade. Pelicot, too, was sentenced to 20 years - the maximum sentence for rape in French law - with the obligation to serve a minimum of two-thirds in case, however, will have to be re-examined at the end of the prison sentence before the question of preventative detention can be explored. In France, sentences are not served consecutively. Public prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger noted last week that had Le Scouarnec been on trial in the US - where people serve one prison sentence after another - he may have faced a sentence of over 4,000 years. But Cécile de Oliveira, one of the victims' lawyers, praised the sentence, which she said had been "finely tailored" to Le Scouarnec's "psychiatric condition". She agreed with the court's decision not to impose preventative detention on the former surgeon, adding: "It needs to remain an entirely exceptional punishment."After the verdict was read out, victims, journalists and lawyers mingled outside the courthouse in Vannes. Many of the civil parties and their relatives, angered by the verdict, brought their frustration to the media. "All that I ask for is that this man cannot offend again," the mother of a victim told French outlets. "If this kind of behaviour needs to entail a life sentence, so be it."
The Journal
28-05-2025
- The Journal
French surgeon sentenced to 20 years for abusing hundreds of children over two decades
A FRENCH COURT on Wednesday gave a 20-year jail term to a surgeon who admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, during more than two decades. The three-month trial of Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has brought to light the extent of his crimes and the suffering of his victims but also raised questions of why more was not done sooner to stop him. He will not appeal his conviction, his lawyer said. 'Mr Le Scouarnec never intended to appeal,' Maxime Tessier told reporters. Le Scouarnec, one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history, was already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. The 20-year sentence for aggravated rape handed down by presiding judge Aude Buresi was the maximum that could be given on the charge of aggravated rape in France, where sentences are not added together on individual counts. Le Scouarnec will not be able to ask for parole until two-thirds of the verdict is served. 'It was taken into account that the acts committed are of particular gravity due to the number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature' of the crimes, said the verdict. But the court rejected a rare demand from prosecutors that he should be held in a centre for treatment and supervision even after any release, citing his 'desire to make amends' for what he had done. 'Forgotten victims' The prosecutor has said last week that in the United States – where the opposite is the case – Le Scouarnec could have been jailed for '2,000 years'. In this trial, which began in February in Vannes in the western region of Brittany, Le Scouarnec has admitted sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients — 256 of them under 15 — in hospitals between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. He was charged with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults. Survivors of the surgeon's abuse staged a protest outside the court in Vannes, holding signs such as 'Never again' and 'I accuse you.' They also held signs representing 355 victims of Le Scouarnec. That number included 'forgotten victims and those whose cases have been dismissed,' said Manon Lemoine, one of the victims. 'We want to be together,' she said. Another victim, Celine Mahuteau, on Wednesday sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron saying that France has not implemented a national policy 'to prevent paedophilia.' Advertisement 'Major pervert' 'I am not asking the court for leniency,' Le Scouarnec said in his closing statement on Monday. 'Simply grant me the right to become a better person,' he said. One of the lawyers, Maxime Tessier, had asked the court to take into account the 'exceptional' nature of Le Scouarnec's confession when he admitted all the charges against him. The retired surgeon also said he considered himself 'responsible' for the death of two of his victims — Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021 in what his family says was suicide, and another man who was found dead in 2020. Le Scouarnec documented his crimes, noting his victims' names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse. In his notes, the doctor described himself as a 'major pervert' and a 'paedophile'. 'And I am very happy about it,' he recorded. Victims and child rights advocates say the case highlights systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes. In 2005, he received a four-month suspended prison sentence after investigators linked his credit card to the online purchase of child sexual abuse material. But Le Scouarnec was neither required to undergo treatment nor barred from practising medicine. 'Never again' While Le Scouarnec has asked his victims for forgiveness, many of them have questioned the sincerity of his apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial. 'You are the worst mass paedophile who ever lived,' said one of the lawyers representing the victims, Thomas Delaby, describing Le Scouarnec as an 'atomic bomb of paedophilia'. There has been frustration among some that the trial has not had the impact in France they hoped for. The case has not won the attention given to the case of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele. But Health Minister Yannick Neuder said on Wednesday he would work with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to ensure that 'never again will we find ourselves in a situation where patients and vulnerable children' are exposed to predators. 'What we want to say is never again,' he told broadcaster France Info. 'How did we get into this situation?' – © AFP 2025
