Trial of Former Surgeon Accused of Abusing Nearly 300 Opens in France

A former surgeon went on trial in western France on Monday on charges that he raped or sexually assaulted hundreds of people, most of them former pediatric patients, in what is widely considered the biggest pedophilia case in French history.

The former surgeon, Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, is accused of raping or sexually assaulting 299 people over 25 years, from 1989 to 2014. Almost all the victims are his former patients, and almost all of them were children at the time of the alleged abuse. The average age of the patients he is accused of sexually assaulting was 11.

“I have committed heinous acts,” Mr. Le Scouarnec told the court as the trial opened in the coastal town of Vannes, in Brittany.

Wearing a black vest, with a bald head and a ring of white hair on the back and sides, he mumbled at first, then spoke more clearly, as he acknowledged responsibility for some of the alleged rapes and sexual assaults, although he said that other acts he was accused of did not fall under those categories.

Referring to his victims, he said that he was “perfectly aware that these wounds today are indelible, irreparable” and that he owed it to them to “take responsibility for my actions and the consequences they may have had.”

Mr. Le Scouarnec faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, because there are no consecutive sentences in France. The rape charges are mostly related to penetration with fingers, which reflects the definition of rape in France.