France's 'reckoning' over largest-ever child sex abuse trial

Just months after France’s justice system was confronted with the horrifying sexual abuse of Gisèle Pelicot, the nation is now grappling with the case of a paedophile who was allowed to abuse hundreds of children unchecked for more than 25 years.

The high-profile Pelicot trial "prompted deep soul searching" across France and its chequered record on attitudes to sexual abuse, said Reuters. And there is disbelief at how retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec was able to abuse children freely for so long.

What is the Le Scouarnec case?

Le Scouarnec, who is already in prison serving a 15-year sentence for a child abuse conviction, is now on trial accused of sexually assaulting 299 victims across 10 hospitals over more than two decades. At the centre of the case is the 74-year-old's diaries, discovered when he was first tried in 2020, which "prosecutors say depict actual events in which children were abused" and in which he "admits to being a paedophile", said CNN. The diaries allowed investigators to track down many of the victims, many of whom had no idea they had been raped or sexually abused as children while under sedation in hospital.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The trial has already "captured national attention". Just as Pelicot "became a potent symbol in the struggle to shift the shame around sexual abuse back onto the perpetrators" it is hoped that France’s biggest ever child abuse case will "bring about a painful reckoning" in the country "and the institutions and culture that may have helped such crimes go unchecked for so long".

What sort of cultural reckoning?

France has faced numerous moments of self-reflection in its attitude towards sexual violence against children in recent years. Chief among them was a 2020 memoir by publisher Vanessa Springora in which she described being groomed by celebrated author Gabriel Matzneff when she was 14 and he was 50.

What was remarkable about the Matzneff case was that for decades the author had "proudly detailed" his sexual abuse of "underage girls and boys" in his writing and "openly talked about his sexual predilections on television chat shows", said The Guardian. The publication of Springora's book "was like a bomb going off in the country", jump-starting a fresh debate around age-of-consent laws and attitudes towards sexual activity with minors.

In the Le Scouarnec case, questions have been raised as to how the surgeon was able to continue treating children after a 2004 conviction for viewing child sex abuse material online. Critics say France's medical ethics codes "discourage doctors from reporting abuse", and that those who do "risk professional retaliation", reported France24.

What is the French law around consent?

French criminal law defines rape as a penetrative or oral sex act committed using "violence, constraint, threat or surprise". Historically, this enabled adults to claim sexual activities with underage children were "consensual", meaning they could only be charged with committing a "sexual act with a minor", which carries a lighter sentence, said Politico. In one case in 2017, a man who impregnated a 11-year-old child was acquitted of rape – "since there was no violence, constraint, threat or surprise, the jury did not consider it a rape". He was later convicted on appeal.

In 2021, France finally addressed the controversial loophole, amending its legal code to define any penetrative sex act with a child under the age of 15 as rape, with a "Romeo and Juliet" exception for consensual relations between individuals with an age gap of up to five years.

France rejected adopting a broader consent-based rape definition in a EU directive as recently as 2023, but a recent parliamentary report has recommended a bill be brought before parliament to amend the current wording to include any "non-consenting" penetrative act. It came after President Emmanuel Macron had signalled he would back a change to the law to include "consent".