One of radiologist François Py's patients wasn't able to stop himself from asking him the question that was on the lips of a good number of people in Loches, a small town in central France: "Just between us, doctor, you knew about the case, didn't you?" The case was that of Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, the former surgeon who has been on trial since February 24 for rape and sexual assault against 299 alleged victims, most of them minors.

On the witness stand, the radiologist swore to the court, as he no doubt did when questioned by his patients: "I didn't know. I'm sorry for all the victims, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it." Taking his turn on the stand, anesthetist Christophe Ménard shook his head in incomprehension. "Nobody saw anything, he seemed under control, not at all someone who was going off the rails," he said. The consensus was such that Laurence Delhaye, one of the magistrates of the Brittany criminal court, ended up asking: "Was there a discussion between you so that everyone would say the same thing?" More than a hundred doctors in 10 different establishments were interviewed during the investigation: None of them ever noticed a gesture or even a word from Le Scouarnec suggesting his pedophilia. Over the past few days, the court had sketched out a profile of the accused as the doctor in his white coat. Asking how a surgeon could treat a young patient and then sexually assault them, sometimes just a few minutes apart.

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