Céline Mahuteau, one of the 298 victims of convicted serial rapist surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, has filed a criminal complaint for “aggravated complicity by omission” against his ex-wife, Marie-France Le Scouarnec.
“Moral Encouragement” Alleged
The complaint, filed on December 6 and confirmed by Mahuteau’s lawyer, alleges that Marie-France Le Scouarnec’s behavior was felt by her then-husband as “an encouragement, moral assistance in the commission of his crime.” Mahuteau, who was raped by the surgeon in 1991 at the age of seven, contends the ex-wife provided a “moral guarantee” for his actions.
The core accusation is that Marie-France Le Scouarnec was aware of her husband’s pedophilia. The complaint states she “knowingly” allowed the pediatric surgeon to go to the clinic each morning, aware he “would be all day with his patients, who were mostly children.”
Knowledge Dating to 1985, Complaint Claims
Mahuteau’s complaint, citing hearings of family and friends, asserts this knowledge existed as early as 1985, when Marie-France Le Scouarnec allegedly knew her husband had an inappropriate interest in a underage great-niece. It further claims she “invited, received, and solicited” children from family and friends to sleep at the family home, despite allegedly knowing about her husband’s “sex dolls and black notebooks.”
The victim’s filing summarizes that Marie-France Le Scouarnec’s “contradictory” statements demonstrate she “knowingly aided and assisted her husband in the commission of offenses by approving of his behavior and actively associating herself with it.”
Ex-Wife’s Denial and Ongoing Investigation
During Le Scouarnec’s trial, which lasted over three months earlier this year, his ex-wife denied any knowledge. “It wasn’t written on his face. I never had any doubts, there was nothing to suggest it,” the septuagenarian stated.
Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced in May to twenty years in prison for rapes and sexual assaults committed in clinics where he worked between 1989 and 2014. In a separate but related development, the Lorient prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation in July for “failure to prevent crimes or offenses against the integrity of persons” against an unknown person (X).
