Gisèle Pelicot ‘inspired’ victims in the largest child abuse trial in France to testify publicly

According to his lawyer, the victims who were allegedly violated and abused by a former surgeon in France have been inspired by Gisèle Pelicot to publicly testify in what will be the largest child abuse judgment in the country, according to his lawyer.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 73, is accused of assaulting or violating 299 people for 25 years, allegedly pointing to his patients while working in Brittany. Your four -month judgment will begin on Monday.

Mrs. Pelicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said Independent He believes that his client’s example inspired the alleged victims of Le Scouarnec after she resigned from her anonymity for the judgment of her now expedited and 50 men who were convicted of rape or assault her sexually.

Mrs. Pelicot, 72, who has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence, chose to listen to her public case, embodying her powerful message that perpetrators are, not the victims, who should feel ashamed of crimes

Gisèle Pélicot resigned from his right to anonymity, and now it is said that he is inspiring others (PA media)

He sat in front of his former Dominique Pélicot in the courtroom in Aviñón, France, every day of the exhausting trial of three months, after having drugged and inviting other men to join him in unstoppable sexual abuses in the course of a decade.

Babonneau said that he had been told that many of the plaintiffs in the next case of mass child abuse in France, a large number of which it is claimed to have been under anesthesia when they were attacked, in more echoes of the case of Mrs. Public Hearings, Public Hearings, in contrast to the closed standard nature of the hearings in cases of sexual crimes.

He accredited his client’s courage to inspire them, telling The Independent: “He became a statement:” I want these things to be known. “

Spokesman for the Court of Appeals in Rennes supervise the case confirmed to Independent that some of the civil parties in the case have expressed the desire to testify publicly.

The French retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec attended a previous trial for the rape and sexual abuse of four children in a court in Saintes, Western France (AFP through Getty Images)

They said that the specific number cannot be provided because it is subject to changes, but before the trial, only eight of the 75 days of scheduled audience have been designated for closed hearing testimonies.

They added that each alleged victim can decide on the scope of the session closed and that the reasons behind the decision of each plaintiff are a private matter.

Le Scouarnec, a surgeon once respected, worked in regions throughout France and is accused of detailing his violations and assaults, and appointing his victims, in discovered newspapers when his house was sought in 2017.

Prosecutors say that it has admitted many investigators, but not all the accusations he faces in the next trial in the city of Breton de Vannes, northwest of France. His lawyers declined to comment before trial.

Mrs. Picot with her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau (left) leaving the Avignon Justice Palace (AFP through Getty Images)

In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years after bars for the rape and sexual aggression of four minors, including two of his nieces.

In May 2017, the former surgeon was called to the attention of the French authorities for the first time after his six -year neighbor in Jonzac, southwest of France, told his mother that Le Scouarnec was exposed and abused her from the near.

He followed an exhaustive search for the house of Le Scouarnec. The officers said they discovered detailed newspapers chronologically and appointing their alleged victims for decades, revealing the assaults he had supposedly committed or wanted to commit to the various hospitals he had worked on, even in Loches, Vannes, Lorient, Quimpperlé and Jonzac.

Police also said they found 300,000 images of alleged images of child abuse and pornography while looking at home.

Le Scouarnec has claimed his newspapers, who in multiple cases declared “I am a pedophile,” he only detailed his “fantasies.”

After he was imprisoned in 2020 for the rape and sexual aggression of the four minors, including his neighboring son, the investigation continued in the alleged victims recorded in his archives.

Mrs. Pélicot (left) and her ex -husband Dominique Pélicot during her trial at the Palace of Justice of Aviñón, southern France, last year (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Prosecutors finally accused him of aggravated violation and sexual assault of 299 people. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison. The Le Scouarnec trial will open on February 24 and will run until June.

The trial occurs at a time to recognize that sexual crimes in France, only weeks after Mrs. Pelicot’s abusers were sentenced in the massive rape trial in France that shocked the world.

Only two months ago, in December, a panel of professional judges found 47 of the defendants in their case guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault, and all were imprisoned for a total of 428 years.

It was a case that resonated worldwide after Mrs. Pelicot got up in court and told the world: “It is not for us to be ashamed, it is for them.” The statement was to become the slogan of the case, which caused global conversations about sexual violence and culture of violation.

Babonneau said that the impact of the real world of the courage of Mrs. Pelicot is already being felt, since an increase in the alleged victims of sexual crimes that renounced their anonymity is seen, the next judgment of mass child abuse is an example is an example high profile.