He could go down as the worst pedophile criminal in the history of France: A now 74-year-old surgeon over several decades in hospitals in the west of the country.
Most of his victims were
Around 200 suspected victims, who were between 18 months and 70 years old at the time of the alleged crimes, will give testimony on Monday in the trial in Vannes on the coast of Brittany. Many hope that the four-month-long proceedings will provoke public outrage.
From around 1990, the surgeon described his crimes in a diary. Investigators found his notes in 2017 during a house search carried out after a 6-year-old girl told her parents that their neighbor, a surgeon, had raped her and the parents filed a complaint.
At the end of 2020, a court sentenced the doctor to 15 years in jail for the rape and sexual assault of the girl, as well as of a female patient and two of his nieces. All the victims were underage.
The investigators also launched another probe in to more than 300 other cases, which led to the present trial. Many of the victims were still under the effects of the anesthetic following operations and only learned from investigators that they might have been raped.
Calls for changes to sexual abuse laws
But for Homayra Sellier, the president of the child welfare association “Innocence en Danger” (“Innocence in Danger”), a first sentence handed to the accused in 2005 raises questions.
At that time, the surgeon was given a four-month suspended jail sentence for accessing child sexual abuse material on the internet.
“Why didn’t the medical association revoke his license straightaway? Looking at child sexual abuse material is often the first step toward committing a crime,” she told DW.
The regional medical association refused to give an interview to DW but wrote in a statement that it learned of this verdict in 2008 and that it had since tightened its control mechanisms. The surgeon did not have his license revoked until 2021.
Sellier hopes that the court proceedings will lead to other changes in thinking as well.
“Dozens of victims were not recognized as civil plaintiffs because the crimes had expired by limitation after more than 30 years,” she said. “The statue of limitation should be abolished for sexual offenses against minors.”
Sellier’s association is a civil plaintiff in the trial, representing 37 alleged victims.
Reform in societal attitude necessary, says expert
Magali Lafourcade, a former judge who is secretary-general of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), which advises the French government on child protection, also wants victims to be better protected under law.
“Since 2021, : When people are younger than 15, they are not considered as mature enough to consent to sex if the other person is more than five years older,” she told DW.
But in all other cases, she said, the victim has to demonstrate that she or he was subjected to violence, threats or coercion or caught by surprise to bring an accusation of rape.
Lafourcade said that this definition should be broadened “to include things like power-based relationships, such as between doctors and their patients.”
She, too, hopes that the current trial will lead to a change in awareness in another regard.
“We must not hesitate to report people when we hear of abuse. In this case, the number of people believed to be victims could have been reduced,” she said.
Media reports say that family members of the victims also knew early on about the accused’s pedophile acts. Lafourcade says this means there should be public information campaigns about incest and child sexual abuse.
“We have to talk with children from an early age about sexual abuse so they are forearmed,” she said.
More prevention planned in schools
Philippe Fait, a deputy from the parliamentary group “Ensemble pour la République” (“Together for the Republic”) who is a former special education teacher, said that precisely such programs are planned in schools from September.
“We will teach all children that their bodies belong to them,” he told DW. “We should also vet personnel who are to be in contact with children better before we hire them.”
Since 2001, all schools have been required to provide three sex education lessons per year.
But this does not go far enough for Mai Lan Chapiron, a singer who has authored several books, a song and a video aimed at helping children protect themselves from sexual abuse.
Chapiron, who herself was a victim of sexual abuse by her grandfather when she was 7, says that, for one thing, not all schools obey the regulation.
Her book “Le Loup” (“The Wolf”) has become a standard work for many teachers and psychologists.
“For two years I have been going to schools and holiday camps to tell children about it,” she told DW. “We mustn’t leave them alone with such cases.”
‘Butterflies’ as a support for children
The association “Les Papillons” (“The Butterflies”) is also trying to give children support.
Since 2020, it has been putting up “butterfly boxes” in French schools and sports clubs into which children can post messages if they or others are victims of bullying, violence or sexual assault.
There are already 450 of the boxes in France, and a school in Munich has now also installed Germany’s first one.
“Les Papillons” has already received tens of thousands of messages.
“My brother raped me when I was between 6 and 9 years old,” the founder of the association, Laurent Boyet, now 53, told DW. “I wasn’t able to talk about it but I could write it down. I would like to give other children this possibility.”
The boxes could also be placed in hospitals — even though that would not have changed much in the case of the surgeon now on trial, as many suspected victims were unaware of the abuse.
This article has been adapted from German.
The post France: Huge child sex abuse case prompts scrutiny of laws appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
