Joël Le Scouarnec

Imagine a doctor who was supposed to make people feel better, especially kids. That was Joël Le Scouarnec. He was a surgeon, which means he did operations. He was born a long, long time ago, on December 3, 1950. He worked in hospitals in a part of France called western France. But instead of helping, he did some very bad things to many children.

For many years, from 1989 to 2014, Joël Le Scouarnec did terrible things to children who were his patients. Most of these children were very young, some were even as young as one year old! It’s like a baby who can barely walk. He was caught because he wrote down what he did in secret diaries. These diaries helped people find out about the many children he hurt.

In 2017, the police finally arrested him. Later, in 2020, he was sent to prison for hurting four children. But when they looked at his diaries, they found out he had hurt many, many more. This was a very big case in France, with 299 children who were victims. In 2025, he was found guilty and sent to prison for a very long time.

This is a sad story because someone who was supposed to protect children ended up hurting them. It shows us how important it is to always be safe and to tell a grown-up you trust if something feels wrong. It also shows that even when people try to hide bad things, the truth can come out.