At the Quimperlé hospital in Brittany, she and he had neighboring rooms on the first floor of the building where on-call medical staff were housed. She was Samia Hadjem, an anesthetist. He was Joël Le Scouarnec, a stomach surgeon. He seemed like the ideal neighbor, never had visitors, made little noise and never even appeared at the parties organized by the trainees. The only thing that indicated whether he was in his room or not was his magnificent voice, which she heard singing Breton sailor hymns.

"In the operating room, we shared the same patients," Hadjem recounted. This was in the early 2000s. Two decades later, they meet again, before the criminal court in Vannes: she, 55 years old, testifying; he, 74 years old, in the defendant's box. Since February 24, Le Scouarnec has been on trial for rapes and sexual assaults committed 299 victims, most of them minors. Hadjem swore before the court that she saw nothing, knew nothing.

When he was hired at Quimperlé in 2004, the surgeon had already committed over 200 sexual crimes in 20 years at two clinics, in Loches, central France, and then in Vannes. Yet no complaints had been filed by patients or professionals, no rumors circulated and no one caught him in the act, except for one mother, who asked him not to come to her daughter's room so often. He eventually reassured her by referring to "medical gestures."

You have 83.53% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.