A lawyer who defended a surgeon dubbed France‘s worst paedophile has died in an apparent suicide, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Maxime Tessier, 34, represented the disgraced Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, who confessed at his trial to sexually assaulting or raping 298 patients between 1989 and 2014, many of them children.
Everything points to suicide,’ Frederic Teillet, chief prosecutor in the western French city of Rennes, said of the lawyer’s death, adding that an investigation had been opened.
Tessier, a father of two young children, ‘had a very high regard for justice and was therefore very demanding towards himself’, said Catherine Glon, his associate.
‘We are obviously in shock’, she added.
He was one of two lawyers defending Le Scouarnec, one of the most infamous sex predators in French criminal history.
Child rights advocates say the case had highlighted systemic failures that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes.
A prosecutor in the case called the former doctor ‘the devil… dressed in a white coat’.
The lawyer of Joel Le Scouarnec, Maxime Tessier, has died by suicide just weeks after his client was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping 299 patiens
Le Scouarnec was sentenced to 20 years behind bars back in May
This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Joel Le Scouarnec, now 74, sitting in courtroom and accused of raping or abusing 299 people, mostly child patients, at the Vannes courthouse, western France, on the opening day of his trial, Monday, Feb. 24
He abused many victims while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations.
A French court sentenced Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison in May.
His offences took place between 1989 and 2014, while other alleged crimes were not prosecute because they happened too long ago.
During a three-month trial held in Vannes, the court heard how Le Scourarnec mainly abused patients while they were still under anaesthetic or slowly waking up following operations.
Thomas Delaby, a barrister representing one of his victims, told Le Scourarnec he is ‘the worst mass paedophile who ever lived’ and ‘an atomic bomb of paedophilia. Your victims will never forgive you’.
Speaking just before the verdict, Le Scourarnec said: ‘I’m not asking the court for leniency. Simply grant me the right to become a better person.’
The defendant also explained how he had caused the the deaths of at least two of his victims.
Le Scouarnec said: ‘I am responsible for the deaths of Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021’ and Alan Roux, who was found hanged at his home in 2020.
Tessier died in the night from July 8 to July 9, 2025, the Rennes public prosecutor’s office said
An investigation into his death has been opened
Lawyer Tessier, asked the court at the time to take into account the ‘exceptional’ nature of the surgeon’s confession.
In turn, prosecutors who had heard Le Scouarnec described as ‘France’s worst ever paedophile’ said he was ‘a devil’ and there was ‘a very high risk’ of him re-offending if ever allowed out of his cell.
Stéphane Kellenberger, the Attorney General, said his proven crimes were committed against 158 males and 141 females, with an average age of 11.
Le Scouarnec had also kept a record of his crimes, documenting the victims’ names, ages, addresses and the nature of the abuse.
In his notes, the doctor described himself as a ‘major pervert’ and a ‘paedophile’.
‘And I am very happy about it,’ he recorded.
During a three-month trial, the court heard how Le Scourarnec mainly abused patients while they were still under anaesthetic, or slowly waking up following operations
The monster told the court in his last statements that he ‘can no longer look at myself the same way because I am a paedophile and a child rapist’ (pictured Le Scouarnec arriving for his trial in February)
Le Scouarnec said: ‘I am responsible for the deaths of Mathis Vinet, who died after an overdose in 2021’ and Alan Roux, who was found hanged at his home in 2020 (court sketch from March)
A woman holds a banner representing anonymous victims during a demonstration ahead of the verdict in the trial of Joel Le Scouarnec
People demonstrated with posters reading ‘No excuse for abuses’, left, and ‘How many more?’, right, ahead of the verdict in the trial of Joel Le Scouarnec
A group of alleged victims, members of women’s collectives, NGO’s and unions gather in front of the courthouse, on the day of the verdict of ex-surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec
Survivors staged a protest outside the court in Vannes, holding signs such as ‘Never again’ and ‘I accuse you’ earlier this month
Nicolas Gourlet, now 31, was sexually assaulted by in 2006 by the monster at the age of 13, after needing surgery for a cyst on his navel
Amelie Leveque, now 42, was one of the hundred of victims after she was operated on by Le Scouarnec in 1991 – the abuse she suffered was detailed in one of his diaries
The graphic details allowed the police to track down his victims as most had no memory of the abuse as they were still unconscious.
The verdict said the jury came to their decision after taking ‘into account that the acts committed are of particular gravity due to the number of victims, their young age and the compulsive nature’ of the crimes.
Requesting a ‘maximum possible sentence of twenty years’ for Le Scouarnec, Mr Kellenberger said there needed to be ‘additional security measures,’ because of the danger Le Scourarnec still posed.
The surgeon practised for decades until his retirement in 2017, despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children.
His wife, Marie-France Le Scouarnec, was also portrayed as a ruthless accomplice, while denying any wrongdoing.
She spent her days taking lovers and going to aqua-aerobics, while her once highly respected surgeon husband repeatedly attacked children, it was alleged.
Ms Le Scouarnec, the mother of his three sons, lived with him throughout that time, and has always denied knowing what he was doing.
One of Le Scouarnec’s victims, Mathis Vinet, died of a drug overdose aged just 24
Victim Louis-Marie, 35, said ‘his words are always the same, in the same tone, I don’t see any sincerity in them’
This court sketch shows a 43-year-old woman telling the court that Le Scouarnec had destroyed her life after he repeatedly raped her on a hospital bed when she was a child
His wife, Marie-France Le Scouarnec, was also portrayed as a ruthless accomplice, while denying any wrongdoing
But Patrick Le Scouarnec, the 70-year-old brother of the defendant, told the court that she was being untruthful.
‘There is another person who could have ensured that my brother was arrested – it is his wife, Marie-France,’ said Mr Le Scouarnec.
Victims of Le Scouarnec have also accused Ms Le Scouarnec of covering up his ‘paedocriminal activities’ for decades.
Ms Le Scouarnec said: ‘I wondered how I could have not noticed anything. It’s a terrible betrayal that he committed against me and my children.’
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