September 18, 2025 • 36 mins
Behind the white coat of respectability lurked one of Europe's most prolific predators. The ClueTrail podcast dives deep into the harrowing case of Joël Le Scouarnec, a French surgeon whose decades of abuse remained hidden until the brave words of a six-year-old girl finally exposed the truth.
What makes this case particularly devastating is how many warning signs were ignored. Despite a 2005 conviction for possession of child abuse materials, Le Scouarnec received only a four-month suspended sentence and was allowed to continue practicing medicine. Hospitals prioritized his surgical skills over patient safety, colleagues noticed odd behaviors but remained silent, and a culture of institutional neglect created the perfect environment for his crimes to continue unchecked. For many survivors, justice came decades too late, with some only learning they had been victimized when investigators knocked on their doors with pages from the surgeon's diaries.
Dive into this powerful episode that examines how institutions fail to protect the vulnerable and how the courage of survivors finally brought decades of hidden abuse into the light. Subscribe and share your thoughts on this devastating case that changed how France approaches medical oversight and child protection.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to ClueTrail, the place where we follow the
paths of crimes and mysteriesthat still leave questions
behind.
Tonight we're in France where,in 2017, a six-year-old girl
confided in her parents thattheir neighbour, a retired
(00:40):
surgeon, had done somethingunthinkable.
Surgeon had done somethingunthinkable.
That disclosure set off aninvestigation that revealed one
of Europe's most prolificpredators, dr Joël Le Scouarnec.
A man once trusted as a surgeonlater was exposed through
(01:05):
hundreds of pages of diariesdetailing decades of wrongdoings
.
This is the story of Joël LeScouarnec, the surgeon who hid
in plain sight.
Joël Le Scouarnec was born on3rd of December 1950, in Paris.
(01:52):
In Villebonne-sur-Yvette, aquiet suburb south of the
capital, his father, joseph, wasa carpenter and his mother,
jeanne, was a homemaker.
Joël was the eldest of threechildren, with a younger brother
named Patrick and a sister,annie.
In his late teens, he beganstudying medicine in Paris, the
(02:14):
historic Hotel du Hospital, andby the mid-1970s he had moved
west to complete an internshipat the Nantes Faculty of
Medicine before choosing tospecialize in gastrointestinal
surgery.
By all accounts, he was seen asambitious, intelligent and
(02:37):
competent in his field.
In 1974, he marriedMarie-France Lhermitte, a
healthcare assistant, and thecouple went on to have three
sons.
They appeared to build theimage of a respectable family.
He was a surgeon with apromising career, a wife also in
(03:02):
the medical field and threeperfect children.
But years later in court, joëlLescournaix would say that his
darker impulses began to surfaceonly around the age of 35.
It was in those years that hefirst acted within his own
(03:29):
family, targeting his youngniece.
The first real warnings aboutJoël Lescournec didn't come in
2017, when the case finallybroke open.
They actually came much earlier, in 2005, whilst he was working
(03:53):
at a hospital in the small townof Lox.
French investigators werealerted by the FBI after an
international inquiry into aRussian child abuse site had
uncovered payments linked toLesquanek and, acting on that
information, french policesearched his computer.
(04:16):
What they found was extremelytroubling.
They uncovered many explicitvideos involving children, and
it was also that same year whentwo young children accused him
of indecent assault.
So Joël Lescournay was thenprosecuted, convicted and given
(04:42):
a light punishment of just fourmonths suspended sentence.
Comparing it to today'sstandards, the idea that an
accused child molester who wascaught with such explicit
material could receive such alight sentence it's astonishing,
(05:04):
but at the time, france'sjustice system often treated
this kind of offences leniently.
Possession of child pornographycould be punished with
suspended sentences rather thanjail, especially for first-time
(05:24):
offenders.
Rather than jail, especiallyfor first-time offenders.
Courts sometimes framed it as amoral failing rather than a
direct danger to the public andthe hospitals Well.
They were known to often handleissues internally.
Usually, a surgeon with aconviction might face a
(05:47):
temporary suspension or none atall, especially if
administrators judged him stilluseful to the hospital.
In Joël Lescournec's case, theconviction was treated more as
an embarrassing mark on anotherwise respected career, not
(06:08):
as clear evidence that patientsor children might be at risk.
So he was free to carry on.
Through the following decade, hecontinued to wear his white
coat, operate and visit patientson hospital wards.
All the while, his secret lifewas still unfolding in darkness.
(06:35):
It was November 2017 when thefirst real crack appeared in
(06:58):
Joël Le Scouarnec carefullymaintained façade.
Now, at the age of 67, he wasdivorced and living by himself.
He was retired now and he livedin a complete squalor in a
house full with clutter andrubbish Next door to what would
(07:24):
later be called the House ofHorrors.
A young family moved in.
They had two children, a girland a boy.
They were aware of the strangehabits of their neighbor, the
retired surgeon who sometimeswandered naked in his garden and
(07:44):
lived in obvious disorder.
But nothing about him ever madethem feel uneasy when they
crossed paths.
For all appearances he wassimply an eccentric old man.
And then came the words thatshattered the impression of him.
(08:07):
Their six-year-old daughtertold him something no parent
ever wants to hear.
Their neighbor, she said, hadbehaved inappropriately towards
her, exposing himself throughthe fence and then even touching
her inappropriately.
(08:30):
The horrified parents wentstraight to the police and
luckily her testimony was takenextremely serious and within
days investigators arrived atthe neighbour's home to begin a
search.
What they uncovered insidewould stun even the most
(08:51):
seasoned investigator.
In cupboards, drawers and boxes, police found a disturbing
collection with hundreds ofexplicit images and videos
involving children.
Alongside these files theyfound dozens of notebooks filled
(09:12):
, cover to cover, in LeScouarnec own handwriting.
They weren't just simplediaries recording the passing of
days.
No, they were meticulousrecords where, page after page,
he had written down accounts ofabuse in thousands of entries
(09:36):
stretching across decades.
Some entries even had names orinitials or even brief
descriptions, and in total,investigators would later
estimate that the notebookspointed to more than 300 victims
(09:58):
.
(10:18):
At first, detectives did notknow if these writings were
fantasy or confessions.
So they began the most obvioustask notebooks aligned with real
children in real places and inreal situations.
The scale of what they hadstumbled upon was unlike
(10:41):
anything they had seen beforewas unlike anything they had
seen before, and what began withthe words of a six-year-old
girl in Jonzac had opened awindow into decades of hidden
abuse by a man who, for most ofhis life, had been trusted to
heal you.
Among all the evidencerecovered from Joël Le
(11:24):
Squarnac's home, it was thenotebooks that struck
investigators the hardest.
There were dozens of them inwhich he had documented his life
in extraordinary detail.
In which he had documented hislife in extraordinary detail,
(11:46):
especially the entries depictingthe abuse he inflicted to his
young patients.
Investigators counted more than300 potential victims within
these pages, and while someentries described situations
that could be traced to realpeople and places, others were
harder to pin down.
(12:06):
Some of the entries pointedback to the earliest years when
he crossed the line within hisown family, and testimony later
revealed that one of his nieceswas amongst the first to suffer
at his hands.
Other entries were connected tohis time as a surgeon, where
(12:28):
hospitals that should have beenplaces of healing became instead
part of his hunting ground, hewould prowl within the hospitals
where he worked and at timeseven during surgeries when
colleagues weren't payingattention, which is horrific to
think about.
(12:49):
The risks he took wereextraordinary.
He literally hid in plain sight.
Literally hid in plain sight.
Experts later said it was rareto encounter such a vast
(13:09):
self-written archive ofoffending, and for prosecutors,
the notebooks became central tothe case.
They were not just journals.
They were evidence that thiswas not a man who had acted on
impulse a handful of times, butsomeone who had lived a double
(13:29):
life over decades and who hadsystematically recorded it as he
went.
For nearly two years, theinvestigation into Joël Le
Scouarnec moved quietly.
Detectives shifted notebooks,matched entries to real people
and began building each of thecases and in 2019, the scale of
(13:55):
what they uncovered came tolight.
The scale of what theyuncovered came to light.
The French media went into afrenzy.
A respected surgeon, alreadyconvicted once for child
pornography, was now suspectedof abusing hundreds of children
across several decades.
The headlines were alarming.
(14:17):
Kids, the headlines werealarming.
Some newspapers even called himFrance's biggest pedophile,
whilst others focused on thehorrors of the diaries, dubbing
them the Black Notebooks.
The public reaction wasoverwhelming and families who
had once known him as theirdoctor, their neighbor or even a
(14:42):
family friend suddenly began toquestion every memory.
Many former patients cameforward and some recognized
details in the notebooks thatmatched their own childhood
experiences.
Investigators also reached outto those they could identify
(15:04):
from the diaries and deliveredthe devastating news.
The idea that one day policemight knock on your door and
tell you that you had enduredsomething so disturbing as a
child, perhaps with no memory ofit.
It's a nightmare almost beyondcomprehension.
(15:26):
The lives this man destroyed,even decades after the abuse had
stopped, are impossible tomeasure.
Are impossible to measure.
After the initial shock anddisbelief, public attention and
(15:47):
anger turned to the authoritiesand the hospitals.
How could a man who had alreadybeen convicted in 2005 have
been allowed to continueoperating, to keep working with
families and children?
The revelations ignitednational debates about medical
oversight in France, aboutleniency within the justice
(16:08):
system and about the silence andfailures that had allowed him
to keep practicing.
Allowed him to keep practising.
Victims and their familiesspoke out, demanding to know why
nothing had been done sooner.
Colleagues who had worked withhim admitted on the oath that
(16:29):
when rumours of his pastcirculated, they chose not to
act, saying at one point itwasn't our problem.
The Guardian described the caseas exposing decades of failures
in medical oversight, whilemedical journals like the Lancet
(16:50):
called for institutionalreforms so that no one could
slip through the cracks in thisway again, that no one could
slip through the cracks in thisway again.
And, of course, this scandalimminently reached the political
stage as well, with both thepublic and many members of
parliament demanding to know howa convicted surgeon could have
(17:13):
been allowed to keep treatingpatients.
In response, governmentministers blamed this oversight
on the regulations that existedin France at that time, where
disciplinary actions were leftentirely to hospitals and
(17:33):
medical boards and convictionsdid not trigger suspensions or
removal from the medicalregistry.
So, in their view, it was inthat climate of silence and
inaction from the hospital boardthat allowed him to go on a
(17:53):
prowl unchecked decades anddestroy countless lives.
They promised reforms tostraighten oversight in
hospitals and to ensure thatdisciplinary warnings would no
longer be ignored.
By the time the case reached itsfirst trial in 2020, the
(18:16):
scandal had already grown intomore than just a story of one
sick man.
It was a moment of truth forthe Charente-Maritime region and
(18:59):
this was the firsttriale-Maritime region, and this
was the first trial to emergefrom the investigation.
It was focused on four victimsidentified in Jonzac and nearby
towns, including thesix-year-old girl whose
disclosure had first brought thecase to light.
(19:20):
Alongside her were three of hisown relatives, who had carried
the secret of their tragedy foryears before finally being heard
.
The courtroom became the stagenot only for his crimes, but
also for the voices that hadbeen ignored for far too long.
Joël Lescourneq sat quietly inthe dock, often staring at the
(19:45):
floor, and when he did speak,his words were described as
clinical and almost detached.
He did admit to some of theacts, but insisted that many of
his writings were nothing morethan fantasies.
Prosecutors described him asdangerous, manipulative and
(20:07):
beyond rehabilitation.
They pointed to his 2005conviction as proof that
warnings had been ignored andargued that his offences showed
a clear pattern of a time.
His defence lawyers took theopposite line, saying that he
was a broken man, frail anddiminished, and that his
(20:32):
notebooks were filled as muchwith fantasies as with fact.
They asked the court to see himas ill rather than purely
criminal.
The court rejected that viewand found him guilty of the
sexual abuse of four children,and he was sentenced to 15 years
(20:53):
in prison.
For many, the verdict was justthe beginning, because the scale
of allegations in the blacknotebooks suggested that four
victims were just the surface ofsomething far larger.
The families of other potentialvictims pressed for answers,
(21:16):
asking why their cases were notincluded and why he was only
being tried for a handful ofcharges.
Judges explained that Frenchlaw requires cases to be handled
step by step, victim by victim,and so the 2020 trial was
simply the first, and, with JoëlEsquanek already behind bars,
(21:40):
where he could no longer harmanother child, prosecutors and
investigators embarked on afive-year process of gathering
evidence, cross-checking thenotebooks and preparing a case
that would finally confront thefull scale of his offending.
The 2020 conviction did notclose the book on Joël
(22:18):
Lescournec.
In fact, in many ways, it onlyopened it further.
Almost as soon as the firsttrial ended, a dedicated team of
investigators across Francebegan the enormous task of
combing through the blacknotebooks.
Began the enormous task ofcombing through the black
(22:38):
notebooks.
Each entry was studied, eachname or initial checked against
hospital records, school listsand neighbourhood records.
It was a slow process, oftenstretching over months, but
investigators knew they had tokeep going, step by step, if
(22:59):
there was ever to be justice.
And once investigatorsconfirmed the entries and began
knocking on doors, the impact onvictims and their families was
sudden and devastating, becausemany only discovered the
(23:24):
connection when police arrivedwith pages from the journals in
hand.
One survivor, marie, now amother of three, later said I
couldn't think they were talkingabout me.
It's like cancer, you think itonly happens to other people.
Another survivor recalled themoment police showed her the
entry linked to her, describinghow she saw her own name and
(23:48):
details written in Le Scouarnechand, and said simply it was
disgusting.
For many survivors, thediscovery reopened wounds they
had carried for years.
One grandmother remembered howher grandson changed after being
(24:08):
admitted to hospital andtreated by Le Scouarnec, saying
he was no longer the happy childthey had known but became
withdrawn and closed off,struggling for years, and then
years later the police knockedat their door.
She later said when the policetold him what they knew, it was
(24:35):
hell for him.
The sky fell on his head.
Many survivors recounted thatthe moment they were told their
names appeared in the journalsand for some even reading the
pages themselves was incrediblypainful.
It meant moving from notknowing to suddenly facing the
(25:00):
most horrific of truths.
For others.
It confirmed what they had longknown but carried silently for
years, and for all of them itwas traumatic once more.
By 2021 and 2022, the number ofconfirmed victims had grown,
(25:26):
expanding into dozens spreadacross the regions where he had
worked, and with each newconfirmation, the same question
was raised of how a man with acriminal record had been able to
move from hospital to hospitalwithout serious intervention
(25:48):
Behind the scenes.
Prosecutors were preparing forthe trial, which would be
broader and more complex thanthe first, a trial that would
finally reflect the scale ofwhat the black notebooks had
revealed.
But preparing for something atthis scale would take time, time
(26:09):
which, for survivors and theirfamilies, would have been
agonizing organizing.
In February 2025, the case ofJoël Le Scouarnec returned to
(26:38):
court.
This time it was in Vannes, aregion of Brittany.
The trial was unlike anythingFrance had ever seen before was
unlike anything France had everseen before.
On the docket were accusationsinvolving dozens of children,
spread across several decadesand multiple regions where Le
(27:00):
Scouarnec had worked.
The charges reflected only afraction of what the black
notebooks described, but stillthe case was vast, so vast, in
fact, that French media calledit the largest pedophilia trial
in the country's history.
(27:22):
The courthouse was placed underheavy security and the media
presence was constant.
Survivors now, ranging fromteenagers to middle-aged adults,
sat alongside their familiesfor the duration of the trial.
Some found the strength totestify in person, while others
(27:45):
spoke from behind screens or hadtheir words read aloud by
lawyers.
Spoke from behind screens orhad their words read aloud by
lawyers, but what was certainwas that for many, it was the
first time their voices had beenheard and their experiences at
the hand of this man takenseriously.
Joël Le Scouarnec himselfappeared older, frailer than in
(28:11):
2020, but he remainedunsettlingly detached.
Experts described him as a manwith an exceptionally
concentrated set of sexualperversions, deeply rooted and
resistant to treatment.
Deeply rooted and resistant totreatment.
This trial revealed not only thescale of his crimes, but also
(28:37):
the failures of those around him, the colleagues and the
institutions that had allowedhim to continue unchecked for
decades.
Some of his relatives spoke ofa culture of silence within the
family, where one was taughtvery young to keep quiet, and
(28:59):
that silence, they said, hadhung over them for generations.
His ex-wife, marie-france, alsotook the stand and told the
court she had never suspectedanything, insisting there was
nothing in their home life thatpointed to such crimes and she
(29:23):
denied ever noticing the dolls,the images or even the notebooks
that investigators lateruncovered.
But her words were challengedby members of her own family,
with his brother, patrick,saying she could have known, but
she chose to stay quiet becauseof the lifestyle that Skwarnek
(29:44):
was providing for the family.
This was echoed by his sister,annie, who accused her of
knowing about abuse within thefamily and failing to act.
The trial also brought newrevelations about abuse within
the wider family, with one ofhis sons testifying that he had
(30:06):
been abused by his grandfather,joel's father, that he had been
abused by his grandfather,joel's father.
He was clear, however, insaying that Joel himself had
never touched him.
Then former colleagues came totestify, admitting that they had
(30:28):
felt uneasy about his eccentricbehavior, but insisting they
never had proof strong enough toact.
In the end, prosecutors arguedthat it was this web of silence,
the family secrets, thecolleagues who stayed silent,
the hospitals that failed to actand the willingness of many to
(30:49):
overlook warning signs simplybecause they valued having a
skilled surgeon on their staffthat allowed this predator to
hurt so many children forliterally decades.
The defense, for its part,tried to argue that Joël Le
Scouarnec was a sick andisolated man consumed by his
(31:13):
fantasies, and once more theyurged the court to see him
through the lens of illnessrather than pure criminal intent
.
But their words carried littleweight against the overwhelming
evidence and the testimonies ofso many.
And after weeks of testimonies,evidence and painful accounts,
(31:37):
the court reached its conclusion.
In March 2025, joel Le Scouarnecwas convicted of the sexual
abuse of 299 children andadolescents.
The charges did not cover everyname in the black notebooks not
even close, but the court foundenough evidence to establish a
(32:01):
long, consistent pattern ofoffending that stretched across
decades.
He was sentenced to 20 moreyears in prison, added to the
15-year term from 2020.
At his age, it meant he wouldspend the rest of his life
behind bars.
When the verdict was read, aheavy silence fell over the
(32:26):
courtroom.
Some survivors wept quietly,while others sat motionless,
absorbing the weight of ajudgment that had taken years,
sometimes decades, to arrive.
For families, it was a momentof both relief and frustration.
Relief that justice had finallybeen spoken, but frustration
(32:51):
that so many names from thenotebooks would never be brought
before court.
Outside the court, reactionswere mixed.
Victim advocacy groups welcomedthe ruling as a rare moment
when the French system fullyrecognized the scale of child
abuse.
(33:11):
Media described it as reckoning, but, frankly, one that had
come far too late.
For the survivors, the trialwas less about the man himself
and more about being heard.
One lawyer representingmultiple victims said it plainly
(33:35):
"'This is not about Joël LeScouarnec.
"'it is about the silence thatprotected him'".
(34:03):
To be continued, the case ofJoël Esquarnac was the largest
of its kind in France, and itsimpact will be felt for years.
It showed how institutions,colleagues and, at times,
families, all missed the chanceto stop him.
If you'd like to hear moreepisodes like this, you can
(34:25):
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Also, follow us on Instagramand TikTok for updates, and
don't forget.
A quick rating on ApplePodcasts or Spotify helps us
reach more listeners.
Until next time, stay curiousand stay safe.
Thank you you.
Welcome to ClueTrail, the place where we follow the
paths of crimes and mysteriesthat still leave questions
behind.
Tonight we're in France where,in 2017, a six-year-old girl
confided in her parents thattheir neighbour, a retired
(00:40):
surgeon, had done somethingunthinkable.
Surgeon had done somethingunthinkable.
That disclosure set off aninvestigation that revealed one
of Europe's most prolificpredators, dr Joël Le Scouarnec.
A man once trusted as a surgeonlater was exposed through
(01:05):
hundreds of pages of diariesdetailing decades of wrongdoings
.
This is the story of Joël LeScouarnec, the surgeon who hid
in plain sight.
Joël Le Scouarnec was born on3rd of December 1950, in Paris.
(01:52):
In Villebonne-sur-Yvette, aquiet suburb south of the
capital, his father, joseph, wasa carpenter and his mother,
jeanne, was a homemaker.
Joël was the eldest of threechildren, with a younger brother
named Patrick and a sister,annie.
In his late teens, he beganstudying medicine in Paris, the
(02:14):
historic Hotel du Hospital, andby the mid-1970s he had moved
west to complete an internshipat the Nantes Faculty of
Medicine before choosing tospecialize in gastrointestinal
surgery.
By all accounts, he was seen asambitious, intelligent and
(02:37):
competent in his field.
In 1974, he marriedMarie-France Lhermitte, a
healthcare assistant, and thecouple went on to have three
sons.
They appeared to build theimage of a respectable family.
He was a surgeon with apromising career, a wife also in
(03:02):
the medical field and threeperfect children.
But years later in court, joëlLescournaix would say that his
darker impulses began to surfaceonly around the age of 35.
It was in those years that hefirst acted within his own
(03:29):
family, targeting his youngniece.
The first real warnings aboutJoël Lescournec didn't come in
2017, when the case finallybroke open.
They actually came much earlier, in 2005, whilst he was working
(03:53):
at a hospital in the small townof Lox.
French investigators werealerted by the FBI after an
international inquiry into aRussian child abuse site had
uncovered payments linked toLesquanek and, acting on that
information, french policesearched his computer.
(04:16):
What they found was extremelytroubling.
They uncovered many explicitvideos involving children, and
it was also that same year whentwo young children accused him
of indecent assault.
So Joël Lescournay was thenprosecuted, convicted and given
(04:42):
a light punishment of just fourmonths suspended sentence.
Comparing it to today'sstandards, the idea that an
accused child molester who wascaught with such explicit
material could receive such alight sentence it's astonishing,
(05:04):
but at the time, france'sjustice system often treated
this kind of offences leniently.
Possession of child pornographycould be punished with
suspended sentences rather thanjail, especially for first-time
(05:24):
offenders.
Rather than jail, especiallyfor first-time offenders.
Courts sometimes framed it as amoral failing rather than a
direct danger to the public andthe hospitals Well.
They were known to often handleissues internally.
Usually, a surgeon with aconviction might face a
(05:47):
temporary suspension or none atall, especially if
administrators judged him stilluseful to the hospital.
In Joël Lescournec's case, theconviction was treated more as
an embarrassing mark on anotherwise respected career, not
(06:08):
as clear evidence that patientsor children might be at risk.
So he was free to carry on.
Through the following decade, hecontinued to wear his white
coat, operate and visit patientson hospital wards.
All the while, his secret lifewas still unfolding in darkness.
(06:35):
It was November 2017 when thefirst real crack appeared in
(06:58):
Joël Le Scouarnec carefullymaintained façade.
Now, at the age of 67, he wasdivorced and living by himself.
He was retired now and he livedin a complete squalor in a
house full with clutter andrubbish Next door to what would
(07:24):
later be called the House ofHorrors.
A young family moved in.
They had two children, a girland a boy.
They were aware of the strangehabits of their neighbor, the
retired surgeon who sometimeswandered naked in his garden and
(07:44):
lived in obvious disorder.
But nothing about him ever madethem feel uneasy when they
crossed paths.
For all appearances he wassimply an eccentric old man.
And then came the words thatshattered the impression of him.
(08:07):
Their six-year-old daughtertold him something no parent
ever wants to hear.
Their neighbor, she said, hadbehaved inappropriately towards
her, exposing himself throughthe fence and then even touching
her inappropriately.
(08:30):
The horrified parents wentstraight to the police and
luckily her testimony was takenextremely serious and within
days investigators arrived atthe neighbour's home to begin a
search.
What they uncovered insidewould stun even the most
(08:51):
seasoned investigator.
In cupboards, drawers and boxes, police found a disturbing
collection with hundreds ofexplicit images and videos
involving children.
Alongside these files theyfound dozens of notebooks filled
(09:12):
, cover to cover, in LeScouarnec own handwriting.
They weren't just simplediaries recording the passing of
days.
No, they were meticulousrecords where, page after page,
he had written down accounts ofabuse in thousands of entries
(09:36):
stretching across decades.
Some entries even had names orinitials or even brief
descriptions, and in total,investigators would later
estimate that the notebookspointed to more than 300 victims
(09:58):
.
(10:18):
At first, detectives did notknow if these writings were
fantasy or confessions.
So they began the most obvioustask notebooks aligned with real
children in real places and inreal situations.
The scale of what they hadstumbled upon was unlike
(10:41):
anything they had seen beforewas unlike anything they had
seen before, and what began withthe words of a six-year-old
girl in Jonzac had opened awindow into decades of hidden
abuse by a man who, for most ofhis life, had been trusted to
heal you.
Among all the evidencerecovered from Joël Le
(11:24):
Squarnac's home, it was thenotebooks that struck
investigators the hardest.
There were dozens of them inwhich he had documented his life
in extraordinary detail.
In which he had documented hislife in extraordinary detail,
(11:46):
especially the entries depictingthe abuse he inflicted to his
young patients.
Investigators counted more than300 potential victims within
these pages, and while someentries described situations
that could be traced to realpeople and places, others were
harder to pin down.
(12:06):
Some of the entries pointedback to the earliest years when
he crossed the line within hisown family, and testimony later
revealed that one of his nieceswas amongst the first to suffer
at his hands.
Other entries were connected tohis time as a surgeon, where
(12:28):
hospitals that should have beenplaces of healing became instead
part of his hunting ground, hewould prowl within the hospitals
where he worked and at timeseven during surgeries when
colleagues weren't payingattention, which is horrific to
think about.
(12:49):
The risks he took wereextraordinary.
He literally hid in plain sight.
Literally hid in plain sight.
Experts later said it was rareto encounter such a vast
(13:09):
self-written archive ofoffending, and for prosecutors,
the notebooks became central tothe case.
They were not just journals.
They were evidence that thiswas not a man who had acted on
impulse a handful of times, butsomeone who had lived a double
(13:29):
life over decades and who hadsystematically recorded it as he
went.
For nearly two years, theinvestigation into Joël Le
Scouarnec moved quietly.
Detectives shifted notebooks,matched entries to real people
and began building each of thecases and in 2019, the scale of
(13:55):
what they uncovered came tolight.
The scale of what theyuncovered came to light.
The French media went into afrenzy.
A respected surgeon, alreadyconvicted once for child
pornography, was now suspectedof abusing hundreds of children
across several decades.
The headlines were alarming.
(14:17):
Kids, the headlines werealarming.
Some newspapers even called himFrance's biggest pedophile,
whilst others focused on thehorrors of the diaries, dubbing
them the Black Notebooks.
The public reaction wasoverwhelming and families who
had once known him as theirdoctor, their neighbor or even a
(14:42):
family friend suddenly began toquestion every memory.
Many former patients cameforward and some recognized
details in the notebooks thatmatched their own childhood
experiences.
Investigators also reached outto those they could identify
(15:04):
from the diaries and deliveredthe devastating news.
The idea that one day policemight knock on your door and
tell you that you had enduredsomething so disturbing as a
child, perhaps with no memory ofit.
It's a nightmare almost beyondcomprehension.
(15:26):
The lives this man destroyed,even decades after the abuse had
stopped, are impossible tomeasure.
Are impossible to measure.
After the initial shock anddisbelief, public attention and
(15:47):
anger turned to the authoritiesand the hospitals.
How could a man who had alreadybeen convicted in 2005 have
been allowed to continueoperating, to keep working with
families and children?
The revelations ignitednational debates about medical
oversight in France, aboutleniency within the justice
(16:08):
system and about the silence andfailures that had allowed him
to keep practicing.
Allowed him to keep practising.
Victims and their familiesspoke out, demanding to know why
nothing had been done sooner.
Colleagues who had worked withhim admitted on the oath that
(16:29):
when rumours of his pastcirculated, they chose not to
act, saying at one point itwasn't our problem.
The Guardian described the caseas exposing decades of failures
in medical oversight, whilemedical journals like the Lancet
(16:50):
called for institutionalreforms so that no one could
slip through the cracks in thisway again, that no one could
slip through the cracks in thisway again.
And, of course, this scandalimminently reached the political
stage as well, with both thepublic and many members of
parliament demanding to know howa convicted surgeon could have
(17:13):
been allowed to keep treatingpatients.
In response, governmentministers blamed this oversight
on the regulations that existedin France at that time, where
disciplinary actions were leftentirely to hospitals and
(17:33):
medical boards and convictionsdid not trigger suspensions or
removal from the medicalregistry.
So, in their view, it was inthat climate of silence and
inaction from the hospital boardthat allowed him to go on a
(17:53):
prowl unchecked decades anddestroy countless lives.
They promised reforms tostraighten oversight in
hospitals and to ensure thatdisciplinary warnings would no
longer be ignored.
By the time the case reached itsfirst trial in 2020, the
(18:16):
scandal had already grown intomore than just a story of one
sick man.
It was a moment of truth forthe Charente-Maritime region and
(18:59):
this was the firsttriale-Maritime region, and this
was the first trial to emergefrom the investigation.
It was focused on four victimsidentified in Jonzac and nearby
towns, including thesix-year-old girl whose
disclosure had first brought thecase to light.
(19:20):
Alongside her were three of hisown relatives, who had carried
the secret of their tragedy foryears before finally being heard
.
The courtroom became the stagenot only for his crimes, but
also for the voices that hadbeen ignored for far too long.
Joël Lescourneq sat quietly inthe dock, often staring at the
(19:45):
floor, and when he did speak,his words were described as
clinical and almost detached.
He did admit to some of theacts, but insisted that many of
his writings were nothing morethan fantasies.
Prosecutors described him asdangerous, manipulative and
(20:07):
beyond rehabilitation.
They pointed to his 2005conviction as proof that
warnings had been ignored andargued that his offences showed
a clear pattern of a time.
His defence lawyers took theopposite line, saying that he
was a broken man, frail anddiminished, and that his
(20:32):
notebooks were filled as muchwith fantasies as with fact.
They asked the court to see himas ill rather than purely
criminal.
The court rejected that viewand found him guilty of the
sexual abuse of four children,and he was sentenced to 15 years
(20:53):
in prison.
For many, the verdict was justthe beginning, because the scale
of allegations in the blacknotebooks suggested that four
victims were just the surface ofsomething far larger.
The families of other potentialvictims pressed for answers,
(21:16):
asking why their cases were notincluded and why he was only
being tried for a handful ofcharges.
Judges explained that Frenchlaw requires cases to be handled
step by step, victim by victim,and so the 2020 trial was
simply the first, and, with JoëlEsquanek already behind bars,
(21:40):
where he could no longer harmanother child, prosecutors and
investigators embarked on afive-year process of gathering
evidence, cross-checking thenotebooks and preparing a case
that would finally confront thefull scale of his offending.
The 2020 conviction did notclose the book on Joël
(22:18):
Lescournec.
In fact, in many ways, it onlyopened it further.
Almost as soon as the firsttrial ended, a dedicated team of
investigators across Francebegan the enormous task of
combing through the blacknotebooks.
Began the enormous task ofcombing through the black
(22:38):
notebooks.
Each entry was studied, eachname or initial checked against
hospital records, school listsand neighbourhood records.
It was a slow process, oftenstretching over months, but
investigators knew they had tokeep going, step by step, if
(22:59):
there was ever to be justice.
And once investigatorsconfirmed the entries and began
knocking on doors, the impact onvictims and their families was
sudden and devastating, becausemany only discovered the
(23:24):
connection when police arrivedwith pages from the journals in
hand.
One survivor, marie, now amother of three, later said I
couldn't think they were talkingabout me.
It's like cancer, you think itonly happens to other people.
Another survivor recalled themoment police showed her the
entry linked to her, describinghow she saw her own name and
(23:48):
details written in Le Scouarnechand, and said simply it was
disgusting.
For many survivors, thediscovery reopened wounds they
had carried for years.
One grandmother remembered howher grandson changed after being
(24:08):
admitted to hospital andtreated by Le Scouarnec, saying
he was no longer the happy childthey had known but became
withdrawn and closed off,struggling for years, and then
years later the police knockedat their door.
She later said when the policetold him what they knew, it was
(24:35):
hell for him.
The sky fell on his head.
Many survivors recounted thatthe moment they were told their
names appeared in the journalsand for some even reading the
pages themselves was incrediblypainful.
It meant moving from notknowing to suddenly facing the
(25:00):
most horrific of truths.
For others.
It confirmed what they had longknown but carried silently for
years, and for all of them itwas traumatic once more.
By 2021 and 2022, the number ofconfirmed victims had grown,
(25:26):
expanding into dozens spreadacross the regions where he had
worked, and with each newconfirmation, the same question
was raised of how a man with acriminal record had been able to
move from hospital to hospitalwithout serious intervention
(25:48):
Behind the scenes.
Prosecutors were preparing forthe trial, which would be
broader and more complex thanthe first, a trial that would
finally reflect the scale ofwhat the black notebooks had
revealed.
But preparing for something atthis scale would take time, time
(26:09):
which, for survivors and theirfamilies, would have been
agonizing organizing.
In February 2025, the case ofJoël Le Scouarnec returned to
(26:38):
court.
This time it was in Vannes, aregion of Brittany.
The trial was unlike anythingFrance had ever seen before was
unlike anything France had everseen before.
On the docket were accusationsinvolving dozens of children,
spread across several decadesand multiple regions where Le
(27:00):
Scouarnec had worked.
The charges reflected only afraction of what the black
notebooks described, but stillthe case was vast, so vast, in
fact, that French media calledit the largest pedophilia trial
in the country's history.
(27:22):
The courthouse was placed underheavy security and the media
presence was constant.
Survivors now, ranging fromteenagers to middle-aged adults,
sat alongside their familiesfor the duration of the trial.
Some found the strength totestify in person, while others
(27:45):
spoke from behind screens or hadtheir words read aloud by
lawyers.
Spoke from behind screens orhad their words read aloud by
lawyers, but what was certainwas that for many, it was the
first time their voices had beenheard and their experiences at
the hand of this man takenseriously.
Joël Le Scouarnec himselfappeared older, frailer than in
(28:11):
2020, but he remainedunsettlingly detached.
Experts described him as a manwith an exceptionally
concentrated set of sexualperversions, deeply rooted and
resistant to treatment.
Deeply rooted and resistant totreatment.
This trial revealed not only thescale of his crimes, but also
(28:37):
the failures of those around him, the colleagues and the
institutions that had allowedhim to continue unchecked for
decades.
Some of his relatives spoke ofa culture of silence within the
family, where one was taughtvery young to keep quiet, and
(28:59):
that silence, they said, hadhung over them for generations.
His ex-wife, marie-france, alsotook the stand and told the
court she had never suspectedanything, insisting there was
nothing in their home life thatpointed to such crimes and she
(29:23):
denied ever noticing the dolls,the images or even the notebooks
that investigators lateruncovered.
But her words were challengedby members of her own family,
with his brother, patrick,saying she could have known, but
she chose to stay quiet becauseof the lifestyle that Skwarnek
(29:44):
was providing for the family.
This was echoed by his sister,annie, who accused her of
knowing about abuse within thefamily and failing to act.
The trial also brought newrevelations about abuse within
the wider family, with one ofhis sons testifying that he had
(30:06):
been abused by his grandfather,joel's father, that he had been
abused by his grandfather,joel's father.
He was clear, however, insaying that Joel himself had
never touched him.
Then former colleagues came totestify, admitting that they had
(30:28):
felt uneasy about his eccentricbehavior, but insisting they
never had proof strong enough toact.
In the end, prosecutors arguedthat it was this web of silence,
the family secrets, thecolleagues who stayed silent,
the hospitals that failed to actand the willingness of many to
(30:49):
overlook warning signs simplybecause they valued having a
skilled surgeon on their staffthat allowed this predator to
hurt so many children forliterally decades.
The defense, for its part,tried to argue that Joël Le
Scouarnec was a sick andisolated man consumed by his
(31:13):
fantasies, and once more theyurged the court to see him
through the lens of illnessrather than pure criminal intent
.
But their words carried littleweight against the overwhelming
evidence and the testimonies ofso many.
And after weeks of testimonies,evidence and painful accounts,
(31:37):
the court reached its conclusion.
In March 2025, joel Le Scouarnecwas convicted of the sexual
abuse of 299 children andadolescents.
The charges did not cover everyname in the black notebooks not
even close, but the court foundenough evidence to establish a
(32:01):
long, consistent pattern ofoffending that stretched across
decades.
He was sentenced to 20 moreyears in prison, added to the
15-year term from 2020.
At his age, it meant he wouldspend the rest of his life
behind bars.
When the verdict was read, aheavy silence fell over the
(32:26):
courtroom.
Some survivors wept quietly,while others sat motionless,
absorbing the weight of ajudgment that had taken years,
sometimes decades, to arrive.
For families, it was a momentof both relief and frustration.
Relief that justice had finallybeen spoken, but frustration
(32:51):
that so many names from thenotebooks would never be brought
before court.
Outside the court, reactionswere mixed.
Victim advocacy groups welcomedthe ruling as a rare moment
when the French system fullyrecognized the scale of child
abuse.
(33:11):
Media described it as reckoning, but, frankly, one that had
come far too late.
For the survivors, the trialwas less about the man himself
and more about being heard.
One lawyer representingmultiple victims said it plainly
(33:35):
"'This is not about Joël LeScouarnec.
"'it is about the silence thatprotected him'".
(34:03):
To be continued, the case ofJoël Esquarnac was the largest
of its kind in France, and itsimpact will be felt for years.
It showed how institutions,colleagues and, at times,
families, all missed the chanceto stop him.
If you'd like to hear moreepisodes like this, you can
(34:25):
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Until next time, stay curiousand stay safe.
Thank you you.
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