Le Scouarnec case: victims fear political exploitation by Darmanin in Vannes
The Justice Minister meets victims of the former surgeon in Vannes on Friday. The collective fears it will be merely a political gesture.
Meeting in Vannes: Le Scouarnec's victims' collective on guard
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin will travel on Friday 21 August to Vannes, in Morbihan, to meet victims of Joël Le Scouarnec. According to France Info, the collective of the former surgeon's victims is welcoming this initiative with suspicion. "I hope it will not be a political gesture," declared Manon Lemoine on Thursday, herself a victim, on the radio.
Convicted in May 2025 to twenty years' imprisonment — the maximum sentence — by the Vannes Criminal Court for nearly 300 rapes and sexual assaults on 299 victims, Joël Le Scouarnec is now the subject of a new judicial investigation opened by the Lorient prosecutor's office. It concerns 10 additional rapes and 40 new sexual assaults.
Structural requests left unanswered
The collective is not limiting itself to today's meeting. It is calling for "genuine in-depth work" covering both the resources allocated to justice and the protection of children. Manon Lemoine emphasises: the voices of victims must be "heard" and better taken into account in judicial procedures.
One point of friction concerns the regime of aggravating circumstances in sexual crimes. The collective has long lamented that only a single aggravating circumstance is taken into account, not multiple ones, and that their accumulation does not result in an actual cumulative increase in sentences. Manon Lemoine states that she has alerted the Justice Ministry on this matter "for over a year". The request has remained "unanswered," she emphasises.
Failings in the medical profession under scrutiny
On the failings of the medical profession — a central point in this case — discussions are progressing, according to Manon Lemoine. "There is a willingness to cooperate" on the part of the Health Ministry, she indicates, whilst calling for concrete results.
These failings have been at the heart of the scandal from the outset: Joël Le Scouarnec had already been convicted in 2005 for possession of child sexual abuse material. This conviction did not end his professional activity, and he continued to work with children for years before the case came to light in its full scale.
Source: France Info