The numbers involved in France’s largest child abuse trial are staggering: 299 alleged victims, sexually abused in 10 hospitals and clinics over 25 years – all by one doctor, prosecutors say.

A former surgeon accused of abusing 299 young patients has accepted responsibility for the "vast majority" of the charges he faces as his trial begins, per reports.

This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Joel Le Scouarnec, now 74, sitting in courtroom and accused of raping or abusing 299 people, mostly child patients, at the Vannes courthouse, western France, on the opening day of his trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Valentin Pasquier via AP)

Defendant Joël Le Scouarnec's chillingly detailed notebooks —which he used to document sexual violence that spanned decades — are central to the trial.

The white-haired 74-year-old, who wore glasses and a black zip-up sweater over a grey shirt, was addressing the court in Vannes, north-west France, on the first day of the largest child abuse trial in French history.

A former French surgeon went on trial Monday charged with raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 patients, most of them children at the time, in one of the country's largest

A retired French surgeon accused of sexually abusing nearly 300 patients, mostly children, has admitted to committing ‘heinous acts’. Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, appeared in the dock in the city of Vannes today,