Vaness, France – The ex-wife of a former surgeon at the largest ever child sexual abuse case center in France told the court on Wednesday that she had “nothing” about her husband’s history of child abuse, including family members, until her arrest in 2017.
Marie-France Lhermite, 71, testified that her ex-husband, Joël Le Scouarnec, was watching in the palace of Vannes, a small town in Brittany, northwestern France, and most of the alleged attacks occurred.
“I never doubted my husband,” Lemite said, stuttering, sometimes just whispering.
Aude Bursis, chairman of the Vannes Criminal Court, reviewed her husband’s writings, which investigators said were more than 300 rapes and sexual assaults in children, because her husband often held his head several feet away.
Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, was charged with rape or sexual assault with 299 victims, most of whom were children under the age of 15, many of whom they recovered from the surgery and documented the abuse in a digital diary caught by investigators in 2017.
Prosecutor and his attorney Maxime Tessier said Le Scouarnec, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for abusing the other four children, admitted that they admitted “a vast majority” of the charges, but not all.
Or aggressive and emotional – “Am I on the trial?” She demanded at one point, Lhermitte repeatedly asked to repeat and kidnap questions with the judge, who rebuked her for answering questions in a respectful way.
When asked if she was the woman she suggested in a 1996 passage, Le Scouarnec wrote that the “catastrophe” hit “she knew I was a pedophile” and Lhermitte denied that it was a reference to her.
According to court documents, investigators believe the surgeon refers to his wife.
When asked about the rape of two young nieces in the 1980s, Lemite denied knowing them and refused to look at the photos displayed on the niece’s genitals, the judge said her ex-husband accepted the photos in the 1980s.
Lescouarnec was sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 when she was a child, her sister, a 4-year-old patient and a 6-year-old neighbor. It was the neighbor’s rape complaint in 2017 that led to the arrest of surgeons and subsequent investigations.
When asked about allegations that her husband began beating his third niece, she replied that her niece was a girl who longed to pay attention.
“She always hangs around my husband’s neck,” she said. “I told myself she was blackmailing him.”
Bursis replied: “She is 5 years old, do you think she manipulated your husband?”
“Go and see, she’s sly,” Lemite said, as the audience in the crowded gallery gasped.
The victim watched the trial of the video link in a 450-seat auditorium just steps from the court. Two other transmission rooms in the former law school are broadcasting the trial to the media and audience. The trial is expected to take about four months.
On Monday, niece Lhermitte Oster French newspaperis a “pack of lies”.
NBC News usually doesn’t name victims of sexual abuse, but Alexandra, 47, agreed to use her name. She hopes to testify next week that her uncle abused her from the age of 5 to 13, despite the incident that took place long ago and was therefore prosecuted under French law.
Back in 1996, Alexandra said her mother talked to Lhermitte about her husband’s unusual love for little girls. She added: “All men love little girls.”
When asked about her communication in court, Lemit denied that she said so.
Lermite’s The testimony that lasted over four hours came after 70-year-old Le Scouarnec’s brother Patrick Le Scouarnec The video link told the court that she had known about her husband’s abuse as early as 1996.
“There was one person who could have my brother arrested, and that was his wife Marie-France,” he said. “She knew her husband’s behavior and did nothing.”
He added that he disconnected from his brother after being arrested in 2017. “I think he should be imprisoned until his death,” he said. “It’s good for society.”
After the brother’s testimony ended, Le Scouarnec begged his brother for forgiveness, adding that he “had committed the worst crime”.
In France, the defendant is allowed to respond to testimony if the presidential judge allows.
If convicted, Le Scouarnec faces up to 20 years in prison, which will be held concurrently with his 15-year deadline.
But these attacks are just part of the intergenerational abuse that is common in families.
Fabien Le Scouarnec, one of the sons of 42-year-old Le Scouarnec, told the court Tuesday that his late grandfather, Joseph Le Scouarnec, had been sexually abused him for several years.
He said the abuse “had happened dozens of times” until he was 10 years old. When he told his mother, he said she replied that she was also “abuseful” by “several people”.
His younger brother Florian Le Scouarnec, 38, testified that he had “happy memories” of his family, who participated in his life and helped him learn, but his father’s “perversion exploded like an atomic bomb in his family.”
“I think that’s why I haven’t kept in touch with him since 2017 because I want to maintain his image,” he said.
