Diaries of a monster: French surgeon’s record details a catalogue of child abuse

Published

2 days ago

February 20, 2025

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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.

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.

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.”

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.

‘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.

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.

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.”

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

Israel checking reports of hostage Shiri Bibas’s body being handed over

Published

5 hours ago

February 22, 2025

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Israel checking reports of hostage Shiri Bibas's body being handed over

Hamas says the body of hostage Shiri Bibas has now been handed over, according to the group’s Al-Aqsa TV channel – as the Israeli military says it is checking the reports.

Israel said on Thursday that Ms Bibas was not among the four bodies handed over on Thursday as part of the ceasefire agreement, instead receiving an “anonymous body without identification”.

The failure to hand over the correct body caused outrage in Israel, and prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to vow that Hamas “pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation”.

Follow latest: Israel claims Hamas killed child hostages with their ‘bare hands’

In a short statement, the Red Cross confirmed it had received human remains and transferred them to Israeli authorities.

The statement did not specify whose remains were believed to be in transit.

Dr Salem Attalah, deputy secretary general for the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades, said it handed over Ms Bibas’ remains to the Red Cross.

The militant group is thought to have been holding the mother and her two boys, Kfir and Ariel.

Hamas previously claimed there was the “possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies” which may have been caused by Israel “targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians”.

Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, later said “unfortunate mistakes” occurred and also suggested Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians.

He added in a statement: “We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign.”

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “Following the reports regarding Shiri Bibas, they are currently under review. IDF representatives are in contact with the family.”

Ms Bibas was kidnapped with her sons – four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir – from the Niz Or kibbutz during the group’s terror attack on Israel in October 2023.

The IDF confirmed the bodies of the two boys were positively identified on Thursday. However, it claimed the children had been murdered by Hamas with “bare hands”.

Hamas however claimed Ms Bibas and her children were all killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, near the start of the war.

It comes ahead of the next round of hostage releases on Saturday – the final one during the first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect last month.

The hostages due for release are Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al Sayed and Avera Mengisto.

According to the Hamas prisoners’ media office, Israel will be releasing 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, adding to the hundreds already released.

It also comes after Israeli defence minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to intensify operations in the West Bank after a series of bus explosions in a city near Tel Aviv.

Two of the blasts were in the city of Bat Yam on Thursday night, and a third was reported in the nearby town of Holon. No injuries were reported.

World

Hamas names six Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday

Published

17 hours ago

February 21, 2025

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Hamas names six Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday

Hamas has named six Israeli hostages who are set to be released on Saturday while Israel is expected to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire agreement between the parties.

The hostages due for release are Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto.

According to Hamas’s prisoners media office, Israel will be releasing 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, adding to the hundreds already released since the ceasefire took effect last month.

The release of the hostages on Saturday is the final one in this phase of the Gaza truce deal.

Mr Mengisto and Mr al-Sayed are civilians who entered the besieged enclave of Gaza a decade ago and have been held there since.

Israelis who survived being held prisoner in Gaza, where a powerful bombing campaign has left much of it destroyed, have been released in small groups since the first six-week phase began last month.

The start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire is expected in the coming days.

Israel and Hamas have been at war since the latter, a militant group ruling Gaza, carried out a massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and took 251 hostage.

The latest list of hostages set for release comes amid heightened tensions between the parties after Israel claimed the body of hostage Shiri Bibas wasn’t actually hers and it had instead received the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.

Hamas responded that Ms Bibas’s remains appear to have been mixed with other human remains in what it claims was an “Israeli airstrike”.

Her body was meant to be handed over on Thursday alongside the bodies of her two children, who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed they received.

The body of journalist and peace activist Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted, was also returned.

The Bibas family has become a powerful symbol of the 251 Israelis kidnapped on 7 October 2023 – not least because Kfir was the youngest taken.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, was released on 1 February as part of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Since the start of the war in October 2023, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

World

Hostage’s body not returned as remains ‘mixed’ in rubble, Hamas says – with Netanyahu warning group ‘will pay’

Published

17 hours ago

February 21, 2025

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Hostage's body not returned as remains 'mixed' in rubble, Hamas says - with Netanyahu warning group 'will pay'

Hamas says the remains of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas appear to have been mixed with other human remains in what it claims was an “Israeli airstrike”.

Israel said the body handed over by Hamas was not Shiri’s, saying it had instead received the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.

Israel claimed today forensic evidence showed Shiri and her two children were murdered in captivity by Hamas. Sky News has asked the IDF to provide evidence for their claims, but they have refused to comment further.

The Palestinian group claims Shiri and her children were all killed in Israeli airstrikes near the start of the war.

Ms Bibas was kidnapped with her sons – four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir – from the Niz Or kibbutz during the Palestinian militant group’s incursion into Israel in October 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it received the bodies of Ariel and Kfir on Thursday.

However, it said the body that Hamas had claimed was their mother was not her and the group had therefore violated the ceasefire agreement.

“During the identification process, it was found that the additional body received was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee. It is an anonymous body without identification,” it said in a statement.

“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is required by the agreement to return four dead abductees. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all of our abductees.”

Hamas said there was the “possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies” due to Israeli bombing. Hamas has said they were all killed in Israeli airstrikes near the start of the war. The group has never provided evidence to back this up. Israel says the Bibas family were murdered by Hamas in captivity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release Shiri’s body, calling it a “cruel and malicious violation”.

“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement.

The body of journalist and peace activist Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted, was also handed over on Thursday.

Hamas handed over the remains as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement which was reached with Israel last month.

The bodies were transferred in four black coffins in a carefully orchestrated public display as a crowd of Palestinians and dozens of armed Hamas militants watched.

Israelis lined the road in the rain near the Gaza border to pay their respects as the convoy carrying the coffins drove by.

In Tel Aviv, people gathered, some weeping, in a public square opposite Israel’s defence headquarters that has come to be known as Hostages Square.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to eliminate Hamas and said the four coffins meant “more than ever” that Israel had to ensure there was no repeat of the 7 October attack.

Mr Netanyahu said: “Our loved ones’ blood is shouting at us from the soil and is obliging us to settle the score with the despicable murderers, and we will.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said: “Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts – the hearts of an entire nation – lie in tatters.”

United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, called the parading of the four bodies “cruel” and “inhumane” in a statement on Thursday.

He said: “Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”

The Bibas family has become a powerful symbol of the 251 Israelis kidnapped on 7 October – not least because Kfir was the youngest taken.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, was released on 1 February as part of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Sombre moment for Israelis – as Hamas uses opportunity for propaganda

Diana Magnay

International correspondent

@DiMagnaySky

The return of the bodies of four Israeli hostages is a “sombre moment” for everybody in Israel and Jews across the world, our international correspondent Diana Magnay says.

She says the two young boys, Ariel and Kfir, “really became a symbol of the tremendous suffering 7 October caused”.

“Now, to have them returned back in this way is tragic.”

Referring to the scenes of coffins being transferred to the Red Cross, Magnay says Hamas has chosen to use this “as a propaganda opportunity”.

“They have missiles on the stage where the four coffins were, saying they were killed by US bombs,” she explains.

She says Hamas’s main message is “this was caused by you, you should take responsibility for it”.

She adds that 7 October was caused by Hamas, and has brought “untold suffering to both Israel and Palestinians”.

Meanwhile, six living hostages, the final due to be freed under the first phase of the Gaza truce deal, will be released on Saturday, according to Hamas.

Israelis who survived being held prisoner in Gaza have been released in small groups since the first six-week phase began last month.

The deal has provided a vital pause in the fighting that’s devastated Gaza and left tens of thousands dead.

At least 1,200 people were killed in the attack that started the war.

Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.