A former French surgeon accused of raping or sexually abusing 299 victims, mostly children under his care, over the course of nearly three decades is set to stand trial in France on Monday.

Joël Le Scouarnec, now 74, is set to stand trial over four months in Vannes, Brittany. The trial will examine alleged rapes and other abuses committed between 1989 and 2014 against 158 men and 141 women. The alleged victims’ average age was 11.

Le Scouarnec, who will face hundreds of alleged victims during the trial, does not deny the allegations, though he says he doesn’t remember everything. Many alleged victims say they have no memory of the assaults, having been unconscious at the time.

The case was brought into the spotlight in 2017 when a 6-year-old neighbor accused Le Scouarnec of touching her over the fence that separated their properties. 

“That was the beginning of the answers to a lifetime of questions, and then it was the beginning of the descent into hell,” Lévêque told public broadcaster France 3. “I felt like I had lost control of everything. I wasn’t crazy, but now I had to face the truth of what had happened.”

“I fell into a deep depression. … My family tried to help, but I felt completely alone,” she said.

Le Scouarnec was previously convicted in 2005 of possessing and importing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year.

Le Scouarnec faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted in this trial, on top of 15 years he has been serving after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.