Central to the trial are defendant Joël Le Scouarnec's chillingly detailed notebooks, which he used to document decades of sexual violence.
Le Scouarnec, now 74, will face hundreds of victims during a four-month trial starting Monday in Vannes, in the Brittany region of northwestern France. He doesn't deny the charges, though he says he doesn't remember everything.
Some survivors have no memory of the assaults, having been unconscious at the time to undergo surgery at Le Scouarnec's hands.
The trial comes as activists are pushing to lift taboos surrounding sexual abuse. That was highlighted recently during the trial that made Gisèle Pélicot, who was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband and dozens of others, France's symbol of fight against sexual violence.
Child protection and women's rights groups and medical community associations see the trial as an opportunity to reaffirm that shame must change sides.
"It should also mark a new step towards a justice system that listens and protects victims and firmly convicts aggressors," they said in a statement.
Le Scouarnec faces up to 20 years in prison for rape, sexual assault and indecent acts committed with violence or surprise.
The case began in 2017 when a six-year-old neighbour denounced Le Scouarnec, who had touched her over the fence separating their properties.
A subsequent search of his home uncovered more than 300,000 photos, 650 pedo-pornographic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a pedophile and detailed his actions, according to investigation documents.
In 2020, Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces and a young patient.
Le Scouarnec has admitted child abuse dating back to 1985 to 1986, according to investigation documents. Some cases couldn't be prosecuted, because the statute of limitations had expired.
The Vannes trial will examine rapes and other abuses committed from 1989 to 2014 on 158 men and 141 women who were age 11 on average at the time.
Victims were stunned about what had happened
The doctor sexually abused both boys and girls when they were alone in their hospital rooms, according to the investigation documents. His strategy was to disguise sexual violence as a medical act, targeting young patients who were less likely to recall what had happened.
One of the victims, Amélie Lévêque, recalled crying a lot when she was in hospital at the age of nine in 1991, but said she had not been aware of what had allegedly happened until it was revealed she was mentioned in Le Scouarnec's notebooks.
"That was the beginning of the answers to a lifetime of questions, and then it was the beginning of the descent into hell as I left the lawyer's office," she said.
The case could have come to light much earlier. Le Scouarnec had already been convicted in 2005 for possessing and importing child pornography and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time.
Despite this, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the next year.
