By Juliette Jabkhiro
VANNES, France (Reuters) – When police told Louis-Marie, 35, that they believed he had been sexually abused two decades earlier by a surgeon who treated him for appendicitis, he thought it was a prank. It wasn’t.
Louis-Marie is one of 299 people, most of them children at the time, who were allegedly raped or sexually assaulted by retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec, who is now facing what are widely considered the most serious charges of mass child abuse to go to trial in France.
Louis-Marie told Reuters that his decision to testify publicly drew inspiration from the courage of Gisele Pelicot, who last year cast aside her right to anonymity when she gave evidence in the trial of her estranged husband who over years invited dozens of strangers to their home to rape her.
“There has been the #MeToo movement, there has been Mrs Pelicot who was extremely brave, and I think she’s right, it’s not for us victims to feel shame,” Louis-Marie told Reuters. Reuters agreed not to publish his surname to protect his family’s privacy.
The #MeToo movement began in 2017, in the aftermath of sexual misconduct accusations against now-imprisoned movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Le Scouarnec detailed his rape and sexual assault of Louis-Marie, who was nine at the time, in his diaries, court documents showed. He admitted the rape of Louis-Marie to investigators, court documents also showed.
On the opening day of his trial, Le Scouarnec acknowledged committing “despicable” acts and causing irreparable harm to his victims. He has admitted to most but not all of the charges against him.
Louis-Marie’s lawyer said victims of sexual violence often felt shamed into silence but the Pelicot trial was changing attitudes.
“Gisele Pelicot’s courage has dramatically shifted the way victims think,” Myriam Guedj Benayoun said. “They think ‘we can’t stay silent anymore, it’s enough.'”
Louis-Marie said that despite the emotional difficulties, he wanted to speak openly about his suffering to help break down what victims and rights groups say has been a pervasive culture of silence around sexual abuse.
He said he had no recollection of the alleged abuse. Medical tests conducted as part of the investigation showed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, court documents showed.
“I don’t want this for my children and I hope speaking out can help protect them.”
‘LAW OF SILENCE’
The Le Scouarnec trial case raises difficult questions for France’s publicly run healthcare system, notably over what authorities knew at the time and whether they failed to act, victims and rights groups say.
Despite a conviction for child pornography in 2005 for which he received a suspended four-month jail sentence, Le Scouarnec continued to work in public hospitals until his arrest in 2017.
The Quimperle public hospital which employed Le Scouarnec in 2006 did not respond to requests for comment on why Le Scouarnec was hired after his conviction for holding child pornography or why he retained his job after concerns were raised by another staff member.
The local branch for France’s National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM) and a department of the Health Ministry were aware of Le Scouarnec’s 2005 conviction, court documents showed.
Local prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger has opened a separate probe into the possible criminal liability of any public bodies or individuals who could have prevented the abuse.
“For me it’s important that those who didn’t say or act be held accountable, whether it’s via a trial or other means,” Louis-Marie said. “So that everybody knows the law of silence is not possible anymore.”
The Health Ministry declined to comment while the trial was ongoing. The CNOM, which has the power to discipline medics, and the CNOM’s local branch did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; editing by Richard Lough and Andrew Heavens)
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