A former surgeon on trial in France for sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most under 15, has admitted guilt for all 299 victims, one of his lawyers said on Thursday.
Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has been on trial in the western city of Vannes since early March, in one of the countryโs largest child sex abuse cases.
He is charged with assaulting or raping the patients, many while under anaesthesia or waking up after operations, at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014.
โI have a duty to tell the truth,โ Le Scoaurnec said during Thursdayโs trial behind closed doors, his lawyer Maxime Tessier told Agence France-Presse.
Tessier said he had asked Le Scouarnec if he admitted that the numerous people mentioned in notebooks seized by investigators were โall potential victims of his actsโ and he said โYesโ.
โI asked him if he agreed that the 299 charges were [criminal] offences and he said โYesโ,โ Tessier said.