French medical council voted 18-0 to let a convicted surgeon work; he abused 299 patients
Joël Le Scouarnec was convicted on 17 November 2005 of importing and possessing child sexual abuse images and given a four-month suspended sentence, yet he was appointed to the Quimperlé public hospital in 2006 and kept operating, including on children, until he retired in 2017. According to documents cited by the child-protection group L'Enfant Bleu, the Finistère departmental council of the Ordre des médecins (CDOM 29) interviewed him in November 2006 and in December 2006 voted 18 to 0, with one blank, that the conviction did not breach medical ethics, deciding to 'leave the DDASS to handle it'. On 28 May 2025 a Morbihan court sentenced him to 20 years for abusing 299 patients, most of them children. The national Ordre has expressed regret for the failures, the Lorient prosecutor opened a judicial investigation against persons unknown for failing to prevent crimes in 2025, and in January 2026 L'Enfant Bleu filed ethics complaints against three former CDOM 29 officials; no official has been sanctioned.
le CDOM 29 vote non à 18 voix, blanc à 1 voix et oui à 0 voix. Il est alors acté de “laisser la DDASS gérer”
Je vous confirme avoir requis en juin 2025 (...) l'ouverture d'une information judiciaire contre X
despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children
Not yet contacted for this story.
Expressed regret for the dysfunctions that let Le Scouarnec keep practising for over a decade after his 2005 conviction.
No outcome recorded yet.