Diaries of a monster: French surgeon’s record details a catalogue of child abuse
Warning: This article contains references to suicide and material readers might find disturbing
Every year, on his birthday, Joel Le Scouarnec composed an entry in his diary. First, he would record his age. Then he would write: “I am a paedophile, and I am proud of it.”
To the rest of the world, he seemed like a respected medical professional, a surgeon who cared for thousands of patients and provided support to their relatives. But Le Scouarnec, now 74, hid a dark secret – his compulsion to abuse children.
Former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec
He’s now on trial, accused of a litany of sex crimes involving 299 alleged victims, almost all of whom were his patients, and most of whom were children. In total, he’s accused of 300 separate offences – 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults – which took place across 25 years in more than a dozen hospitals.
The average age of his alleged victims was just 11 years old, split almost equally between boys and girls. He was eventually stopped in 2017, following investigations that involved multiple police forces and even the FBI.
It is a long and horrific list, agonisingly detailed by the prosecution, but it boils down to one fact – Le Scouarnec is alleged to be the most prolific child abuser ever apprehended in France and, perhaps, in all of Europe.
Quimperle Hospital
After decades of allegedly abusing patients without any repercussions, Le Scouarnec seemed to believe he was invincible. His crimes finally came to light when his six-year-old neighbour told her mother he had sexually abused her while she was playing in the garden of her home, in the town of Jonzac in southwest France.
The investigations that followed led to his conviction and imprisonment for raping and sexually assaulting four young girls in 2020. But evidence recovered by the police during that investigation revealed abuse on a far wider scale.
When the police entered Le Scouarnec’s house, they found a scene that was both sinister and shocking. There were 300,000 indecent photos and videos of children (some hard copies and some on computers), 70 child-sized dolls – some of which were chained up – wigs and, crucially, hundreds of notebooks and diaries detailing his acts of abuse.
‘This man destroyed my life’
This macabre discovery went on to change the lives of hundreds of people who had been unaware they were victims of Le Scouarnec’s crimes. Among them was Marie*. Now in her late thirties, she was just 10 years old when she was hospitalised suffering from acute appendicitis. Joel Le Scouarnec was her surgeon. In his diaries, he wrote about abusing her while she was under anaesthesia.
For many years, Marie, like many of the alleged victims, didn’t know she’d been assaulted, until a visit from the police shed light on a feeling that something had happened to her body which she couldn’t explain.
“This man destroyed my life and the lives of so many children… When I heard I was among the alleged victims, I told myself that’s the missing jigsaw piece,” said Marie. “I was shocked but then I began to make a connection between this and the problems I had experienced, especially regarding my issue with intimacy and relationships with men.”
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The FBI raised the alarm
In 2004, as part of a global investigation into paedophile networks, the FBI found evidence Le Scouarnec had shared and downloaded pornographic images of children via a website based in the United States.
The FBI alerted French authorities and the former surgeon was arrested and then charged with possession of indecent images of minors. In 2005, the case was heard in court and he was given a four-month suspended sentence. What happened is a shocking example of how this doctor’s activities were ignored, leaving him to continue his alleged abuse.
In 2006, a psychiatrist working at the same hospital as Le Scouarnec wrote to the management, expressing concern that the surgeon was practising on children despite having a conviction for sharing images on paedophile websites.
The letter was referred to the ombudsman. A similar letter of concern was sent by a trade union representing healthcare workers. But no further action was taken.
In 2008, he transferred to practise at another hospital in Jonzac. The hospital’s director had the surgeon’s file, which contained the documents regarding his previous convictions and letters of concern from colleagues, but chose to employ him.
That same year, an anaesthetist at the same hospital was convicted of possessing and sharing indecent images of children. He, too, was also allowed to continue to practise at the hospital and treat young patients.
Lawyer Francesca Satta represents some of the victims
‘He could have been stopped’
“Nobody will attack a high-ranking surgeon,” said Francesca Satta, a lawyer representing some of Le Scouarnec’s alleged victims, adding that the surgeon was “overlooked” because of his position.
She added: “The evidence was there. There were searches at his home and they found indecent images of children. The diaries existed but were not discovered… he could have been stopped.”
If, in 2006, he’d been prevented from treating children, there would be at least 20 fewer alleged victims in this case.
Among them was a little boy named Mathis Vinet.
Mathis Vinet’s grandparents have spoken out
His grandparents, Roland and Mauricette, welcomed us into their home with warm handshakes and cups of coffee. Their living room was filled with books and family photos. But they were on edge; burdened by grief and anger, mixed with a desperate desire for justice.
Their grandson, Mathis, was just 10 years old when he was taken to hospital with stomach pains and came under the care of Joel Le Scouarnec.
“He admitted our grandson and examined him,” Roland recalled, adding that the surgeon said Mathis needed to stay in hospital overnight. “He said if anything urgent happened we would be alerted.”
Le Scouarnec told the family to leave Mathis in his care. That night, he allegedly abused the boy as he lay in bed. His grandparents still have the discharge paper, signed by the former surgeon.
Roland and Mauricette say their grandson was abused
That day changed Mathis completely, according to his family.
The young boy who enjoyed helping his grandfather in the garden was replaced by a troubled youth whose life unravelled as he fell into addiction.
Like most of the other alleged victims, he remained unaware that he’d been attacked by Le Scouarnec until told by the police, more than a decade later.
“There was a knock at the door,” Mauricette remembers. “Mathis was alone. He’d started using drugs, so he thought he might be in trouble. When they left, having told him… his world came crashing in around him. He had flashbacks and called us the next day to say he was in a bad place.”
“He took drugs to make himself feel better… but it didn’t work.”
On the table, there is a picture of Mathis as a boy, beaming. In later pictures, he looks more sombre, as if he has turned in on himself.
In 2021, he took his own life, aged just 24 years old.
‘To call him a monster is an understatement’
Le Scouarnec doesn’t deny his abuse of many of the young children about whom he wrote in his diaries. He told investigators he did everything he wrote about, but didn’t realise how many children there were.
“We can call him a monster but it’s an understatement,” said Satta, who has worked across cases involving violent murderers and notorious criminals. “He has just one thing on his mind, 24/7, and that is sexually abusing young children.”
A letter with Joel Le Scouarnec’s signature
But there is another troubling unknown in this case. During the trial, 299 alleged victims will air their accusations against Le Scouarnec in court, but there could be more.
At least two years of diaries disappeared, which means more former patients of Le Scouarnec could still be unaware of what happened to them as children.
The case against the former surgeon involves so many victims, that a normal courtroom is not big enough. An annexe will be opened to accommodate the hundreds of victims, lawyers, family members, journalists and members of the public who will follow the proceedings over the next four months.
The victims will gather in a lecture theatre to watch the trial on a big screen. It is the sort of room that you might find anywhere, but as you look around, at the hundreds of seats, you are reminded that each one of these has been allocated to an alleged victim.
There are so many questions that haven’t been answered. How could so many chances to stop him have been missed? Does French society have an inbuilt fear of exposing sexual crimes? Did Le Scouarnec really act alone, or did he have a network with others?
But, above all, will these victims feel a sense of closure if the allegations against Le Scouarnec are upheld?
For Marie, it’s about protecting others. “This man is a predator of children. His place is in prison and he needs to stay there.”
Most of the alleged victims were children when they last saw Joel Le Scouarnec. Now they return as adults, to confront him in court.
Some of the pain they suffered due to abuse in a hospital may yet be healed by the punishment of a court.
*name has been changed
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
World
Ukraine and Europe cannot reject Trump’s plan – they will play for time and hope he can still be persuaded to desert the Kremlin
“Terrible”, “weird”, “peculiar” and “baffling” – some of the adjectives being levelled by observers at the Donald Trump administration’s peace plan for Ukraine.
The 28-point proposal was cooked up between Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff and Kremlin official Kirill Dmitriev without European and Ukrainian involvement.
It effectively dresses up Russian demands as a peace proposal. Demands first made by Russia at the high watermark of its invasion in 2022, before defeats forced it to retreat from much of Ukraine.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv receives US peace plan
(l-r) Kirill Dmitriev and special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg in April 2025. Pic: Kremlin Pool Photo/AP
Its proposals are non-starters for Ukrainians.
It would hand over the rest of Donbas, territory they have spent almost four years and lost tens of thousands of men defending.
Analysts estimate at the current rate of advance, it would take Russia four more years to take the land it is proposing simply to give them instead.
It proposes more than halving the size of the Ukrainian military and depriving them of some of their most effective long-range weapons.
And it would bar any foreign forces acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine after any peace deal is done.
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The plan comes at an excruciating time for the Ukrainians.
They are being pounded with devastating drone attacks, killing dozens in the last few nights alone.
They are on the verge of losing a key stronghold city, Pokrovsk.
And Volodymyr Zelenskyy is embroiled in the gravest political crisis since the war began, with key officials facing damaging corruption allegations.
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Ukrainian support for peace plan ‘very much in doubt’
The suspicion is Mr Witkoff and Mr Dmitriev conspired together to choose this moment to put even more pressure on the Ukrainian president.
Perversely, though, it may help him.
There has been universal condemnation and outrage in Kyiv at the Witkoff-Dmitriev plan. Rivals have little choice but to rally around the wartime Ukrainian leader as he faces such unreasonable demands.
The genesis of this plan is unclear.
Was it born from Donald Trump’s overinflated belief in his peacemaking abilities? His overrated Gaza ceasefire plan attracted lavish praise from world leaders, but now seems mired in deepening difficulty.
The fear is Mr Trump’s team are finding ways to allow him to walk away from this conflict altogether, blaming Ukrainian intransigence for the failure of his diplomacy.
Mr Trump has already ended financial support for Ukraine, acting as an arms dealer instead, selling weapons to Europe to pass on to the invaded democracy.
If he were to take away military intelligence support too, Ukraine would be blind to the kind of attacks that in recent days have killed scores of civilians.
Europe and Ukraine cannot reject the plan entirely and risk alienating Mr Trump.
They will play for time and hope against all the evidence he can still be persuaded to desert the Kremlin and put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war, rather than force Ukraine to surrender instead.
The Eurovision Song Contest is changing its voting system, following allegations of “interference” by Israel’s government this year.
Israeli singer Yuval Raphael received the largest number of votes from the public in the contest in May, ultimately finishing as runner-up after the jury votes were counted.
But a number of broadcasters raised concerns about Israel’s result.
After the final, Irish broadcaster RTE requested a breakdown in voting numbers from contest organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), while Spain’s public broadcaster, Radio Television Espanola (RTVE), called for a “complete review” of the voting system to avoid “external interference”.
In September, Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS said it could no longer justify Israel‘s participation in the contest, due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
It went on to say there had been “proven interference by the Israeli government during the last edition of the Song Contest, with the event being used as a political instrument”. The statement did not elaborate on the means of “interference”.
Sky News has contacted the Israeli government for comment.
In early December, the EBU will hold its winter general assembly, with members due to consider the changes, and if not satisfied, vote on Israel’s participation.
Key changes to next year’s competition include:
• Clearer rules around promotion of artists and their songs
• Cap on audience voting halved
• The return of professional juries to semi-finals
• Enhanced security safeguards
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Will Eurovision boycott Israel?
Sanctions threat
The EBU said the tightening of rules around promotion was to “discourage disproportionate promotion campaigns… particularly when undertaken or supported by third parties, including governments or governmental agencies”.
It said that “any attempts to unduly influence the results will lead to sanctions”.
Contest director Martin Green said “no broadcaster or artist may now directly engage with or support campaigns by third parties – including governments or their agencies – that could distort the vote”.
He said the reduction in the number of votes that can be made online, or via SMS or phone call, from 20 to 10 was “designed to encourage more balanced participation”.
He said that “although the number of votes previously allowed did not unduly influence the results of previous contests, there were concerns expressed by participating broadcasters and fans alike”.
Professional juries in semi-finals – and younger jurors
It was also announced that professional juries in the semi-finals would be restored for the first time since 2022, with an expansion to the range of professions from which jurors can be chosen.
The EBU said this will give roughly 50-50 percentage weight between audience and jury votes.
At least two jurors aged 18-25 will be present in every jury, to reflect the appeal of the contest with younger audiences.
Also mentioned were enhanced technical safeguards designed to “protect the contest from suspicious or coordinated voting activity” and strengthen security systems that “monitor, detect and prevent fraudulent patterns”.
Politics making itself heard over Europop lyrics
Mr Green said that the neutrality and integrity of the competition is of “paramount importance” to the EBU, its members, and audiences, adding that the event “should remain a neutral space and must not be instrumentalised”.
Israel’s 2024 representative, Eden Golan. Pic: AP
A vocally apolitical event, world events have dominated Eurovision in recent years.
Russia was banned from the competition in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times, but there have been ongoing calls to block their participation over the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the Hamas-Israel war.
Israel denies targeting civilians in Gaza and has said it is being unfairly demonised abroad.
In September, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia threatened to withdraw their participation in Eurovision unless Israel is excluded from the competition.
There were also demonstrations against Israel’s inclusion in Basel, Switzerland, when the 2025 competition took place.
‘Step in right direction’
Responding to the changes, Iceland’s official broadcaster RUV told Sky News they were “a step in the right direction”, and they would be discussing them with their “sister stations in the Nordic countries” ahead of the EBU meeting in December.
Ireland’s official broadcaster RTE told Sky News: “Clearly, events in the Middle East are unfolding day by day. As previously confirmed by the EBU, the issue of participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest has been included on the agenda of the EBU Executive Board’s ordinary Winter General Assembly.”
Sky News has also contacted the official broadcaster for the Netherlands (AVROTROS), Spain (RTVE), Slovenia (RTVSLO), and Israel (Kan) for comment.
The chief executive of Kan, Golan Yochpaz, has previously said the event should not become political and that there is “no reason” why Israel should not be part of it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pic: Reuters
Netanyahu praised Israeli entrant
Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s 2025 Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael she had brought the country “a lot of honour” after she finished in second place, adding “you’re the real winner. Statistically, it’s true… You entered the hearts of a huge portion of the public in Europe.”
The year before he told entrant Eden Golan: “I saw that you received almost the highest number of votes from the public and this is the most important thing, not from the judges but from the public, and you held Israel’s head up high in Europe.”
In October, a ceasefire deal was put in place, aimed at bringing an end to the two-year war in the Middle East.
The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation, with airstrikes and ground assaults devastating much of the territory and killing more than 67,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it says around half of those killed were women and children.
The world’s largest live music event, next year’s contest will be held in Vienna, Austria, in May and will celebrate 70 years of Eurovision.
Over 200 students have been kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria – the second mass abduction in the country this week.
Gunmen took 215 students and 12 teachers from St Mary’s School in Agwara, Niger state, early on Friday, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria.
Daniel Atori, a spokesperson for the Niger state chapter of the association, said he met parents of the abducted children “to assure them that we are working with the government and security agencies to see that our children are rescued and brought back safely”.
St Mary’s is a secondary school that has students aged 12 to 17, but the institution is attached to an adjoining primary school with more than 50 classrooms and dormitory buildings.
Dauda Chekula, 62, said that four of his grandchildren, ranging in age from seven to 10, were among those abducted.
“We don’t know what is happening now, because we have not heard anything since this morning,” Mr Chekula said.
“The children who were able to escape have scattered, some of them ran back to their houses and the only information we are getting is that the attackers are still moving with the remaining children into the bush.”
On Monday, 25 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state, northwest Nigeria.
Police said men armed with rifles stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga at around 4am local time (3am UK time), arriving on motorcycles in an apparently well-planned attack.
Student escapes from kidnappers
A 15-year-old student who was among those abducted from the boarding school in Kebbi state’s Danko-Wasagu area managed to escape.
She said she found refuge at a teacher’s house.
The Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga was attacked on Monday. Pic: AP
Police at the school compound to investigate the kidnapping. Pic: Africa Independent Television/Reuters
It was not immediately clear who was to blame for either of the abductions.
Abubakar Usman, the secretary to the Niger state government, said in a statement that the latest kidnapping occurred despite a prior intelligence warning of heightened threats.
“Regrettably, St Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the state government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” it read.
A security staffer was “badly shot” during the early-morning attack on the school, the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora said.
Blood stains on the floor of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School. Pic: AP
Ransom demand for worshippers
Separately, gunmen attacked a church in Kwara state on Monday, killing at least two people.
A church official said 38 worshippers were also kidnapped by the gunmen, who have since issued a ransom demand of 100 million naira (£52,660) for each person.
Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states border one another.
Worshippers run for cover after hearing gunshots in Kwara state, Nigeria. Pic: Reuters
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The attacks have highlighted insecurity in Nigeria and forced President Bola Tinubu to postpone foreign trips.
At least 1,500 students have been abducted in the region since Boko Haram extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Niger and Kebbi state, but analysts say gangs often target schools in kidnappings for ransom.
Nigeria was recently thrust into the spotlight after Donald Trump singled the country out, claiming that Christians are being persecuted – an allegation that the government rejected.
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