The former surgeon on trial in France for raping or sexually abusing 299 mostly underage and unconscious patients has confessed.
“I have committed heinous acts,” the 74-year-old retired doctor said on Monday after the indictment and the names of all the victims were read out in court in the French city of Vannes.
“I realize today that these injuries cannot be wiped out and cannot be repaired either,” said the defendant, who is accused of having abused a total of 158 male patients and 141 female patients between 1989 and 2014.
“I have to take responsibility for my actions and the consequences for the victims that they will have for the rest of their lives,” he said.
At the time of the alleged abuse, many of the victims were in the operating theatre, unconscious, or in the process of being anaesthetized or sedated, the public prosecutor said.
It said the average age of the victims was 11 years old and that in 111 cases, the charges relate to aggravated rape. The public prosecutor considers 15 other cases to be time-barred.
According to the indictment, the defendant penetrated his victims with his hands and often disguised his actions as part of medical examinations.
“I remember parts of what happened in the recovery room and how I panicked and called out for my father,” testified a man, who was allegedly abused in 1995 when he was a young child and was a patient of the defendant.
The doctor recorded the decades of abuse in detail in diaries, which investigators seized during a search, along with around 300,000 pornographic photos of children and dolls. The diaries also mention sexual acts on dolls and animals.
The defendant faces up to 20 years in prison. The trial is expected to last until June.
