Just over a dozen victims and their families rallied outside a courthouse in western France last week, surrounded by activists.
By their feet, a crime scene had been reconstructed. Symbolic objects like children’s clothes, toys and a notebook were scattered atop a white sheet. Each object was given a number, as though it would later be taken in for forensic testing.
Joël Le Scouarnec, a French paedophile surgeon accused of raping and abusing 299 child patients between 1989 and 2014, has been on trial since February in one of the largest sex abuse cases France has ever seen.
A final verdict is expected tomorrow, on May 28.
As the three-month trial draws to a close, victims and organisations combatting child abuse are not only frustrated with the lack of attention the case has received, but angry at the meagre actions taken by the French government to ensure a crime of this scale never happens again.
‘Shame must change sides’
But it is not for want of trying. Those who fell victim to Le Scouarnec’s abuse as children have made significant efforts to try and draw public attention to the case, and the issue of child sexual abuse more broadly.
Many waived their right to anonymity in the hearings, agreeing to testify in the courtroom. Others demanded action, like Nicolas Gourlet, who during his testimony in late April asked that “things change so we don’t end up with another Le Scouarnec out there”.
Gourlet was sexually assaulted by Le Scouarnec in 2006 at the age of 13, after undergoing surgery for a cyst on his navel. He is now 31 years old.
Throughout the trial, an increasing number of victims also changed their minds about speaking openly to the press in the hope that “shame changes sides”, as Gourlet said, echoing the words of Gisèle Pelicot in the mass rape trial that rocked France last year.
But despite their efforts, Le Scouarnec’s victims say very little has been done.
“Nothing is happening. We haven’t seen a single political reaction,” Manon Lemoine, who was 11 when she was raped by Le Scouarnec, told AFP. “Despite how difficult this trial is for us, we are obliged to put our energy into making ourselves heard, to try and get a bit of visibility, a bit of consideration,” she said.
The victims' group has asked the French government to form a special committee of representatives from the health and justice ministries, as well as the children’s commissioner, to draw lessons from the Scouarnec case and improve the government response to, and prevention of, child sexual abuse.
“We haven’t heard back yet, but we’re waiting for them to act on what’s happening now, on this tragedy,” Lemoine said.
Gabriel Trouve, who was assaulted by Le Scouarnec at age 5 when he was hospitalised, believes the trial should serve as an “open-air lab” to expose “all the systemic failures” that exist, and to ensure a “solid support and prevention system” is put in place.
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In the shadow of Pelicot and Betharram
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