Two hundred and ninety-nine victims between January 1989 and January 2014, including 256 aged under 15. One hundred and fifty-eight male victims and 141 female victims aged 11 years on average. The figures are chilling and dizzying. The Joël Le Scouarnec affair is undoubtedly the largest child crime case known to date in France. After seven years of investigation, the 73-year-old former surgeon will soon be tried before the Morbihan criminal court in Vannes for a total of 300 acts of rape and aggravated sexual assault that he allegedly committed during his career in several departments. .
A few weeks ago, the public prosecutor of Lorient mentioned the holding of this extraordinary trial in the first half of 2025. This will be the case with a trial which will begin “on February 24 for a duration of approximately four months”, a announced this Monday Ronan Le Clerc, secretary general of the general public prosecutor’s office of the Rennes Court of Appeal. It is currently unknown whether it will be held behind closed doors as in 2020, when Joël Le Scouarnec was tried by the Assize Court of Charente-Maritime and sentenced to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment for rape and sexual assault on four minor victims including two of his nieces.
Around twenty locations planned for the trial
Holding such a trial requires in any case unprecedented organization given the scale of the case and the number of victims. The management of the judicial services of the Ministry of Justice has also labeled this procedure “extraordinary” as was the case for the attacks of November 13 in Paris. For more than two years, a steering committee bringing together magistrates and lawyers has been working on all the logistics surrounding this trial. “The first question that arose was to know where this trial was going to be held,” underlines Ronan Le Clerc.
It is in fact impossible for the Vannes judicial court to accommodate so many civil parties, lawyers, journalists and the public. For many months, it was therefore necessary to look for a venue large enough and capable of hosting a trial over such a long period. For a time there was talk of gymnasiums, performance halls and even the Parc Expo in Rennes. “We had identified around twenty places but we ultimately found nothing,” explains Ronan Le Clerc. Around fifteen municipalities around Vannes were also contacted, in vain.
A bill which should be around three million euros
Last year, the file was finally resolved with the free provision by the town hall of Vannes of the former law faculty, free for around ten years and only occupied today by associations. Located a few hundred meters from the court, the old campus has the advantage of having a 400-seat amphitheater and other ancillary rooms.
Once the location was validated, a vast and expensive project began. Firstly, on the real estate side with the complete reconfiguration of the meeting room where the debates will be held. “It was a real challenge with the installation of a video broadcasting system, IT, sound and a control room,” explains the secretary general. It was also necessary to adapt the old faculty where the civil parties, journalists and the public will be located. “Most of the work is finished, all that remains is the installation of the furniture which should be completed in January,” breathes Ronan Le Clerc, who had never experienced such a titanic organization during his career.
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If we add the costs during the holding of the trial such as travel expenses or expected staff reinforcements, the bill should be around three million for the holding of the trial of Joël Le Scouarnec. To check that everything is working before the opening of the debates, a “dry run” bringing together around fifty people should take place in the coming weeks.
