French surgeon went on trial Monday charged with raping almost 300 patients

 A former French surgeon went on trial Monday charged with raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 patients, most of them children at the time, in one of the country’s largest child sex abuse cases.

Judge Aude Buresi declared the hearing in the western city of Vannes open as Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, took his place in the dock. The former surgeon is already in jail after being found guilty in 2020 of abusing four children, including two of his nieces.

In the latest trial, Le Scouarnec faces allegations that he assaulted or raped 299 patients, many while waking up from anaesthetic or during post-op checkups

 

                           , at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014.