VANNES, France, May 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The trial of a French surgeon who for years sexually abused hundreds of patients, most of them minors, enters its final phase on Monday with the accused's lawyers set to make their closing arguments.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has admitted to sexually assaulting or raping 299 patients in hospitals in western France between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Of those patients, 256 were aged under 15 at the time.

The prosecution on Friday requested the maximum 20-year sentence for the former surgeon and also made the rare demand that he should be held in a centre for treatment and supervision even after any release.

"You were the devil and he sometimes is dressed in a white coat," prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger told Le Scouarnec, adding that an additional trial could be required to cover the cases of further victims whose abuse is not part of the current case.

The verdict from the court in Vannes in the western Brittany region is expected on Wednesday. But before that, his defence lawyers, whose meticulous and respectful conduct has won praise throughout the trial, will put their case.

Le Scouranec is charged in this trial with 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults and is set to emerge this week as one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France's history.

- 'Utterly guilty' -

One of the surgeon's lawyers, Maxime Tessier, said last week that his client was "utterly guilty" and the defence is expected not to cast any doubt over the gravity of his crimes.

But they may seek to argue that the contrition of the former surgeon, who apologised to his victims, is genuine and that he has undergone personal evolution behind bars.

However many victims' lawyers questioned the sincerity of Le Scouarnec's apologies, which he repeated almost mechanically over the weeks of the trial, sometimes word for word.

"I am not an actor," responded Le Scouarnec after a lawyer for one of the victims expressed irritation over his frequently monotone answers.

While the surgeon admitted responsibility, he also repeatedly said he did not remember his acts.

But Tessier said his client had acted throughout the trial in a way that was "respectful" of justice and that his admittance of guilt was "not posturing" but marked a genuine "evolution".

The months of hearings have been marked by horror over the acts of the ex-surgeon -- who confessed to the abuse -- but also frustration over the failure of medical and judicial authorities to act sooner.

The former surgeon practised for decades until his retirement in 2017, despite a 2005 conviction for owning sexually abusive images of children.

Le Scouarnec is already in prison after being sentenced in December 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.

- 'Appalled to see' -

Some parties in the trial voiced frustration that it had not had the impact in France they had hoped for in the media and politics.

The case has not won the level of attention given to that of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last year for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his now ex-wife Gisele.

Earlier this month, around 20 victims of Le Scouarnec and their relatives, who have formed an association, staged a protest in front of the court over the "silence of the political world".

They demanded "an interministerial commission" to "learn lessons" from the Le Scouarnec case and prevent similar events from happening again.

"We are appalled to see that this 'trial of the century' is not a watershed event in the eyes of the government and, more broadly, the general public," the group said.

"They're trying to make him out to be a monster, but this monster is society that created him and allowed him to persist," said Manon Lemoine, now 36, one of the victims who Le Scouarnec admits to raping when she was 11.