Joel Le Scouarnec, the former surgeon who has admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly children, between 1989 and 2014, has been sentenced to a maximum term of 20 years in jail.
Le Scouarnec was dressed in black as he stood emotionless in court listening to Judge Aude Burési deliver the verdict. He had admitted the charges in March.
Judge Burési said the court had taken into account the fact that the former surgeon had especially sought out unwell, vulnerable, and sedated victims.
The sentence has a mandatory minimum term of two-thirds, and because Le Scouarnec has already served seven years, he may be eligible for parole by 2030.
Le Scouarnec, 74, has been dubbed France’s most prolific paedophile.
He is already in jail after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.
The former doctor has been on trial in Brittany since late February.
During that time, dozens of his victims have testified, telling the court how the abuse they sustained as children shaped their lives.
In March, Le Scouarnec admitted to sexually abusing all 299 victims, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations.
He kept diaries in which he described the assaults in graphic detail, which allowed police to track down his victims, many of whom had no memory of the abuse they suffered while in Le Scouarnec’s care.
“I can no longer look at myself the same way because I am a paedophile and a child rapist,” Le Scouarnec said during his last statements to the court last week.
