Dawn
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15:50 May 23, 2025
A French prosecutor on Friday requested the maximum 20-year sentence for a former surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing almost 300 mostly child patients. An additional trial will also likely be required for Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, to cover the cases of further victims whose abuse is not part of the current process, said prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger as he outlined the sentencing demands. Le Scouarnec has been on trial since February accused of 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults on 299 people, mostly of minors under 15, at a dozen hospitals in western France, in one of the country’s largest child sex abuse cases. He admitted in March to sexually abusing all 299 victims between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Le Scouarnec, who is already in prison for a previous conviction for child sex abuse, should receive the maximum possible term of 20 years in jail on the single charge of aggravated rape, said Kellenberger. Warning of the “high risk of re-offending” ...