Doctoring the Truth
Welcome to Doctoring the Truth, a podcast where two dedicated audiologists dissect the world of healthcare gone rogue. Explore jaw-dropping stories of medical malfeasance, nefariousness, and shocking breaches of trust. The episodes provide deep dives that latch onto your curiosity and conscience. It's a podcast for truth-seekers craving true crime, clinical insights, and a dash of humor.
Doctoring the Truth
Ep 24- Despicable Dr. Scouarnec: “I am a Pedophile…and I’m Very Happy About It”
The silence was shattered by the words of a six-year-old girl, brave enough to tell her father about a disturbing encounter with their neighbor. What followed was the unraveling of one of the most horrific medical betrayals in modern history.
- The Podcast “Redhanded” on Wondery, Ep 405-The Paedophile Diaries: Dr. Joel Le Scouarnec
- Wikipedia: biography, conviction, number of victims, timeline Le Monde.fr+15Wikipedia+15BMJ+15
- Sky News: diaries, abuse during anesthesia, 300,000 images, sex dolls The Sun+3Sky News+3People.com+3
- Lemonde, AP, CBS News, People, other outlets: trial details, sentence, public reaction, systemic failures
- https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/03/17/at-le-scouarnec-s-child-abuse-trial-the-victims-sobs-anger-and-trauma_6739237_7.html
- https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/07/09/french-lawyer-who-defended-child-abuser-surgeon-le-scouarnec-dies-in-apparent-suicide_6743204_7.html
If you or someone you know is a victim of physical, sexual or psychological abuse: https://rainn.org/resources
International Sexual Assault Resources | RAINN
Don't miss a (heart) beat! Check out our Instagram @doctoringthetruthpodcast and email us your Medical Mishaps at doctoringthetruth@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook at Doctoring the Truth, and TikTok @doctoring the truth. Don't forget to download, rate, and review so we can keep bringing you more exciting content each week!
Stay safe, and stay suspicious...trust, after all, is a delicate thing!
Don't forget to check out these fantastic discounts from our sponsors:
Visit www.shimmerwood.com for an exclusive 30% off with our discount code STAYSUSPICIOUS
20% Off Strong Coffee Company https://strongcoffeecompany.com/discount/STAYSUSPICIOUS
www.handful.com for 30% off with our code STAYSUSPICIOUS
www.standshoes.com for 15% off any product with our code STAYSUSPICIOUS
amanda jenna, hey, oh, how you doing a bit under the weather, yeah yeah, just a little summer bug situation going on here not sure, I'm sorry, but yeah, so we're taking it easy yeah, how you doing good, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Actually, I'm gonna be a lot better when this episode is over. Because I'm doing this episode, because I feel like it's really important to digger, but this guy's an absolute blight on humanity, like he does not deserve to exist, and so I'm. It's so depressing, it's probably the worst, most awful thing I've ever talked about. So, yeah, I'm really selling it.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be hard it's gonna be a hard it's gonna be one of those that's like this is really shitty to discuss, but like important to discuss because these things are happening and and this is a current case right, it is current, like he had his sentencing a couple weeks ago and, uh, we'll see what you think about that towards the end, so we'll probably be disappointed, I suppose
Speaker 1:yeah, we usually are with sentencing guys, we're usually disappointed right so I mean I guess you know, take, take a little time for you, Amanda, I'll do the story. I know you're not feeling well. Put it on mute because there's no banter that's possible during this. This guy is such a despicable human being and in fact I'm going to entitle the episode Despicable. Dr Skwarnick Quote I am a pedophile and I'm very happy about it. End quote. And I wish I could just end it there because that says it all.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that that's that probably encapsulate all of the disgustingness you're going to unfold.
Speaker 1:Before we get into that, though, I will say I've managed to get through this and keep my spirit up by partaking of one of our sponsors' beverages called Shimmerwood. Yeah, oh, you tried. You know, if you find yourself doing a horrific pedophile case on your podcast, there's nothing like Shimmerwoodcom that crafts CBD infused seltzers using full spectrum CBD for a calming, non-intoxicating effect. Twice named the number one CBD drink by Forbes. These refreshing seltzers combine main sourced fruit, cocktail bitters and clean ingredients, no added sugars, caffeine or artificial flavors, and they're available in bold flavors like Razz, lime, chai, cherry my favorite ginger, orange and Just Hemp. If you just prefer just that hempy, I should try that, because I'm like what is this?
Speaker 1:like licking a rope, I don't know. That's not a good sell for this product, but I'm sure it's delicious.
Speaker 2:Razz Lime sounds good to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, razz Lime Ginger Rum is really good.
Speaker 2:Oh, if, you heard that cough, that one wasn't even me, that was my dog. She's still sick too, she got bronchitis.
Speaker 1:Honey Raven, feel better, sister, shit. Shimmerwood offers a natural flavorful alternative to alcohol or sugary drinks, and they're perfect for relaxing anytime, straight or mixed. Visit wwwshimmerwoodcom. Does people say w's anymore?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:We're at the age we say the w's for an exclusive 30 off with our discount code stay suspicious. That's 30 off at wwwshimmerwoodcom promo codes stay suspicious. All right. The resources for this episode prime. One of the primary resources. I have to shout out this other podcast called Red Handed. They're wonderful, a couple of.
Speaker 1:English ladies and they are just I just could listen to their accents all day long but also they do really thorough research and somehow they got a hold of some stuff that I wasn't willing to pay for. So you know, I wasn't willing to pay for Le Monde subscription in France, because this, this takes place in France. So I am using a lot of the information from their episode number 405, the pedophile diaries Dr Joelle Lesquarnak, and then, of course, my friend Wikipedia. There's a bunch of different news articles, and so those will be listed on our show notes. I can't state the trigger warnings enough. This is going to be horrific. People. If you are at all triggered by suicide, child sexual abuse, assault, including rape, be warned.
Speaker 1:Listen to our you know, backlog, listen to Red Handed, but not the, not episode 405, because they go into quite a lot of detail. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, but just the overview alone is very, very, very awful and devastating. And again, I bring this up because this is a trusted surgeon who got away with this for 30 years and has only just come to justice, and some may question whether or not he actually came to justice. So I'm bringing it up because I think it's important for us to know, but not because I take any well pleasure, no, and in this at all, and I I'm really dreading talking about it, but I think it's important. So, oh, deep breath, little zen moment.
Speaker 2:And do a little line of you got this and you're doing important work and we're all going to buckle up and get our barf bags.
Speaker 1:Listen. Yeah, my next episode. I've got to do something lighthearted. I don't know what that would be in our genre, but we'll find something. So what happens when the person trusted to heal is secretly harming the most vulnerable? Tonight on well, and it may be the daytime when you're listening, but on doctor and the truth, I was getting very like moody. Uh, as I was writing this tonight, I'm doctoring the truth.
Speaker 2:She was like a 60 minutes. She was like tonight on doctoring the truth. She was like a 60 minutes. She was like tonight on doctoring the truth we are going to uncover this fucking horrible shit oh god, he's horrible.
Speaker 1:The disturbing saga behind dr joelle lescornec, a respected french gastrointestinal surgeon who preyed on children for decades, hiding in plain sight. It all began when a six-year-old's brave words shattered the quiet facade, and it's quite interesting that I lose my voice as I'm beginning this, because I think even my voice is wary of talking about this fool. Okay, a little liquid refreshment, okay. In April 2017, jean-jacques, france, a young couple named Jerome and Laura had just moved into town. Jean-jacques, france, a young couple named Jerome and Laura had just moved into town.
Speaker 1:Jean-jacques was a small town in southwestern France, the kind of town where everyone was up in everyone else's business, and immediately upon moving in, the couple noticed that their neighbor, a 66-year-old surgeon, was somewhat unusual. His house was disgusting to start, and they could hear him playing classical music all night, every night, until the early hours of the morning. The windows on his house were so dirty and grimy that you couldn't even see through them and, to make matters worse, they would occasionally spot this man walking around his garden. Completely starkers, that's right, listeners. This is another story of a man who enjoys walking around in his birthday suit. Oh, what the fuck, that's right, listeners. This is another story of a man who enjoys walking around in his birthday suit.
Speaker 2:That's the only comedic relief we're gonna get.
Speaker 1:Speaking of comedic relief, be sure to listen to episode 20 about Rick Van Turdbucket Thiel, where apparently this is a thing, but unfortunately, in this scenario, the fence was very short, and so Jerome and Laura, having had kids at the time in the house, weren't happy about this. Strangely, they noticed that when they ran into him on the street in public, he seemed pretty normal. But I find that even more disturbing the fact that a man like this, who will learn who he is, can sometimes seem normal. Right, that's so scary. Yeah, they thought he was polite, respectable and harmless enough. That was until april 24th 2017, when jerome and his young daughter bumped into the surgeon as they were coming home from a walk. The surgeon pointed his finger in the young girl's face and waggled it back and forth as if to warn her no, no, no. Understandably, the child seemed pretty freaked out and asked her dad if she could go inside, and of course, he said go inside. And when he followed her into the house, his life would never be the same. His daughter turned to him and asked if I tell you something, will you promise not to get mad? No, jerome said of course, and then the girl told him what. No father or anyone would want to hear. That man is a strange man. She said that man showed me his willy and she said she'd not wanted to tell anyone about it before because she was worried that she might go to prison. Bless her little six-year-old heart. She went on to say that the previous saturday she'd been playing with her brother in the garden. The man next door beckoned her over to the fence, exposed himself to her and asked her to touch him. When he refused, he reached through the fence and touched her with his fingers. As soon as he heard this horrible news, jerome called the police. Thank goodness Good, dad Right.
Speaker 1:The police raided his house Inside. It was filthy in every sense of the word. Under the floorboards the police found a collection of more than 70 life-sized dolls. Some were a few feet tall and some had been rudely modified with sex toys. Some were chained and bound. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. In the living room, investigators found a catalog of horror. They found crates of notebooks detailing his abuses, with names, dates and ages of the victims. Later the media began to refer to these notebooks and friends as Les Coins Noirs or the Black Notebooks. These were the handwritten accounts of the abuses. All of the victims he perpetrated against were children who had been in his care. Investigators also found over 300,000 child sexual abuse images. In total, there were 299 victims over 30 years. The abuses were carried out at 12 different clinics and hospitals across northwest France, all under the guise of medical examinations.
Speaker 1:Perhaps more shocking was this man's pride in the atrocities that he had been committing. One such comment in his diaries read I am a pedophile and always will be. Here's another disgusting quote from his journal. While smoking my morning cigarette, I reflected on the fact that I am a big pervert, a voyeur, a sadist, a masochist, a fetishist and a pedophile all rolled into one, and I am very happy about it. What the frick? There were even twisted love letters to his victims. Some of them were as young as one year of age and I just couldn't bring myself to read those quotes. They were so painfully horrific. Many pages in his diary expressed his frustration that his family didn't understand his quote. Lifestyle end quote. Oh, no, kidding, nobody does dude.
Speaker 2:It's not a lifestyle you sicko.
Speaker 1:Right. He also expressed his belief that he was getting away, his disbelief sorry that he was getting away with what he was doing and that he'd managed to do this for so long. Because after all, dear listeners, this man had been convicted in 2005, yet still somehow managed to be allowed to continue working with children for another 13 years after his conviction but more on that later. It should be noted that these crimes weren't impulsive acts. They were methodical, premeditated and meticulously recorded in his vice-filled logbook of horror. Joel Laskwarnik was born on December 3, 1950, in Paris, to his hard-working parents, a carpenter and a nanny. He had two siblings and was the oldest. This meant that he felt immense pressure to succeed from an early age. So at the age of 10, he decided he wanted to become a surgeon. Now, I'm not saying surgeons are likely to be psychopaths, but I am saying a lot of psychopaths are likely to be surgeons. Joël was a quiet child who enjoyed being alone with his books and classic records for company. He kept detailed written lists of his collections, not just of his books and vinyl, but of operas that he had seen, films he had watched and cities he had visited. But there was something a bit off when his grandfather died and he visited the mortuary. He later said I knew what it meant, but I didn't feel any emotion. I didn't feel anything, even though it was my grandfather. Red flag, maybe, yeah, maybe. Laskornik graduated from medical school in Nantes in 1983. He worked in Luxe, vence, lorient, kimperley and finally Jean-Jacques until 2017. Laskornik specialized in abdominal issues like appendicitis, hernias and gastrointestinal surgery. He operated on both children and adults. Early in his career he began dating a young nursing assistant named Marie France. Later he secured a job as a surgeon at a clinic in Vannes and the two of them moved there together, leading a comfortable life. They went on to have three boys together and an active social life. They went on lavish holidays to Italy and other places in Europe and they lived in a massive mansion on a giant hill, complete with a grand piano in the lounge. As a busy surgeon, laskwarnik was not around much for his kids, but when he was, he would take his boys to museums and he encouraged them to take music lessons. The children do say they remember their childhood as happy Happy, that is, until their grandfather was around.
Speaker 1:The paternal grandfather, joseph Laskwarnik, was Joël's father. I already mentioned he was a carpenter, but when he was 40 years old. While commuting into the city for work, joseph met a 19-year-old man named Christian Dubois. They struck up a friendship during their morning commutes on the train and eventually, when Joseph lost his job, christian helped him get a new one at the bank where Christian worked, and over the years Christian became part of the family. He even went on family holidays. One of these holidays, joelle's sister walked in on Joseph, her dad and Christian playing with a stuffed animal which had been taken from DuBois' stuffed animal collection. When she walked in, they looked worked up and embarrassed and they shouted at her to close the door.
Speaker 1:Years later, when Joelle's mother died, christian moved in with the with a family. Listeners will have to decide for themselves what they think about that. Suspish, though, am I right? Years later, when joelle had his children, they nicknamed their grandfather joseph grandpa maniac. I mean mean, if you know. You know. Years later, the kids shared that they overheard Joseph asking their mother to record porn films for him off the television. So this grandpa porn addict ran his household with an absolute iron fist.
Speaker 1:When the boys were at Joseph's house, they were never allowed to shower or set foot in the dining room. They were also not allowed out into grandpa's hut. The hut was a wooden shed that stood at the bottom of the garden. Joseph would often lock himself away for hours. Nobody was allowed in, except for one of his three grandsons, fabian. Unfortunately, it was there that Joseph sexually abused his grandson Fabian for years. Fabian later testified that he was between five and nine years old and it happened everywhere in the kitchen, in front of the TV, in the shed. One day he desperately told the family friend, christian Dubois, about his grandfather flashing him, touching him and forcing him to give oral sex. Dubois actually confronted Joseph about what was going on and Joseph then apparently broke down, saying that he'd been raped by a priest when he was a child and that's why he was doing what he was doing now. He swore to Dubois that he would change and he would never do it again. Interestingly, to this day Joël denies ever being abused by his father.
Speaker 1:Also interesting is Jo Joel testified he wasn't always a pedophile. He claims to have operated on children for years and even worked on a pediatric board for six months and never felt any attraction or desire at all. But in 1985, in his own words, he transferred his sexuality. That started with his five-year-old niece, fanny. He claimed that she was very affectionate towards him and would sit in his lap and at first it disturbed him, but then his thoughts turned sexual, so I guess it's all the five-year-old's fault, right? I mean, I feel like vomiting. This is when the squirter considers that he was a pedophile. That's when he discovered it.
Speaker 1:He started making what he calls unfortunate gestures and then soon in his black notebooks he chronicled the sexual abuse perpetrated in nauseating detail. He wrote that before Fanny I never would have had such an idea. Before that I had a normal life, I made love with my wife, I had nothing to write about. But after this instance he began writing and it consumed him completely. I don't understand what can lead someone who in other ways is attracted to adults to take a path where they engage with child sex abuse images. It's just mind-boggling. Some people commented that perhaps it went hand in hand with a kind of God complex from being a surgeon, which for the majority of surgeons isn't applicable. But for him it's an interesting theory because he does most of his offending in hospitals and so about that he came across as quiet and reserved and most people just thought a competent surgeon. He was able to walk around in his white coat with impunity and, as we've talked about before in this podcast, the children and the elderly unfortunately fall victim to perpetrators like these in institutions because nobody believes them or they're too scared to speak out. We need to do more for our vulnerable populations.
Speaker 1:Anyway, lusquarnock started recording his abuses, which occurred not just in the hospitals he worked in, but he was also absolutely content to do this to children that he knew and who were related to him, and he referred to all of this revoltingly as his sex life. On the one hand, he's a well-to-do surgeon, husband, father, thriving, advancing in his career, living in his massive mansion, attending glossy parties Like he's in the upper echelon of society at this point, and on the other hand, you have the abuser, who's descending deeper and deeper into depravity with the kind of abuse he's engaging in. Joel later wrote in his notebook I no longer examine young patients. I looked at them with the eyes of a pedophile. Every gesture took on a sexual connotation.
Speaker 1:Over the years, the hospitals and clinics that he worked in became hunting grounds. Walking through the halls, he would look for children who were alone in their rooms. He was so crafty he would never ask the nurse to leave the room because he was cautious about the abuse that he carried out. He didn't want to get caught. He was so crafty he would never ask the nurse to leave the room because he was cautious about the abuse that he carried out. He didn't want to get caught. He was careful not to linger too long so that he would draw too much attention to himself. He wrote in his diaries that he would only move on a child when he knew the coast was clear. He would step into the room and say one of his phrases like I've come to see if your tummy hurts or does it burn when you pee. And then Skornik would act as if he was carrying out a medical exam, exposing a child's lower body and abusing them. If he were ever caught by a nurse or anyone else which was rare but sometimes did happen he would quickly pull up the sheets and carry on like nothing was amiss. He never left any marks and he was careful never to cause too much physical pain. If he felt any resistance or suspicion he would stop. But that rarely happened.
Speaker 1:The position of authority that a doctor in a white coat has over a child on their own cannot be overstated. He wrote in his diaries that the advantage of girls between three and ten is that you can touch them without asking too many questions. I think I'm gonna vomit and burst into tears. This is so horrible. I thought I could talk about this without losing it, but I don't know close guys. I think this that was one of the most disgusting sentences that has ever been said out loud, and certainly one for me, and that's horrible. I just want listeners to know. I'm really sorry, but can you believe this is happening in this day and age? So most of his abuses were carried out on that population, but there were older children that he also abused and and those instances occurred in the operating room while the children were unconscious. But how did that happen? Because no surgeon is ever in an operating room by themselves, right, but I mean usually there's multiple staff members in the room working with the child. Dr Luskornik wrote oh, you have to be patient and wait for the opportunity. So basically, he would wait until his colleagues had their backs turned and then he would just slip his hand under the sheet and day to day this is what he was doing, and I'm sure he got a thrill knowing there was a room full of people that if they just turned around he would get caught. So this is the portrait of a man who had such depraved proclivities that he had to constantly push the bar to chase that thrill. Later on, some of his colleagues would say that they'd worked with Joelle on hundreds of surgeries and never suspected anything.
Speaker 1:His diary entries began as sporadic weekly entries and burgeoned to multiple daily entries, sometimes four times a day, and the entries branched out to include boys as well as girls and even more tricky situations where he would pride himself for abusing children unnoticed, with others in the immediate vicinity. So sick, he wrote disgusting letters to his victims, addressing them by name. He wrote I would go home and enjoy writing. I did not use certain words at first, but then the despicable began to escalate and I don't know some of this that I wrote out from his diary. I don't know if I can read it, but one disturbing entry bemoaned the fact that he didn't have a daughter to cuddle. He talked about how she would always have a dress, etc, etc and sit on his lap. I just can't read his notes.
Speaker 1:Another entry notes abuse of funny and fancy the family's two silver collies and this isn't a theory. He actually wrote in his journal that he was multiplying transgressive experiments, that he was proud to break the law. The squarnick's wife, marie, confronted him about his activities. She pointed out a cupboard that he always kept locked in the house and shouted you, pedophile, I do not want to know what's in there, empty it out, get treated, you're doing good. She must have known, and we'll learn a little bit more, but I think she probably. I mean she knew a lot more than she let on.
Speaker 2:Why would she assume that he's being a pedophile? Or she knew Later?
Speaker 1:she would claim she had no idea what was going on right under her very nose. Yet Joelle wrote in his journals that his wife had found out that he was a pedophile. Sure, too bad she didn't do anything about it. It could have ended his reign of terror. In the year 2000, joelle's sister, annie the one who'd walked in on the stuffed animal incident years earlier confronted him. She said that her 10-year-old daughter told her that Joelle had touched her. Upon hearing this, joelle broke down and, with crocodile tears, he promised to seek treatment, saying he'd work for the rest of his life to make amends.
Speaker 1:It took her 25 years to come forward. When asked why she didn't go to the police, she said that it was because she thought her daughter was the only victim and that it was inconceivable to her that her brother was a dangerous man. She didn't know that he'd already abused her other daughter and had no intention of stopping. Annie also told mar that she already knew. What the fuck, marie, seriously, her response was. Her response was well, all men love little girls. You just wanted that surgeon's sweet ass salary and you didn't care about anything else.
Speaker 1:Even when Joelle and Marie France separated in 2004, she still didn't go to the police, even though she knew what he'd been up to, and in November 2004, french intelligence was contacted by the FBI. The FBI had been investigating an international network circulating child sexual abuse material. The investigation revealed three payments using Los Guarnics credit card to a Russian sexual abuse site on the dark web. Instead of raiding his house, the French police called Joelle and they asked him to come down to the police station in the next town over whenever he could, whenever he had a minute, because after all, yeah, he was a very busy man.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, sure, oh sure. Don't want to inconvenience you, but just have a couple questions.
Speaker 1:Investigators never searched his house, they didn't search the hospital either. They didn't interview any of his relatives or his colleagues. And as Joelle went to the police station for a total of 25 minutes at the interview he was asked five questions and he stumbled through his answers about experiencing a regretful, quote-unquotequote phase after his marriage fell apart, and then the next day he returned to work, continuing to care for his pediatric patients. How could this happen? Because the French medical system, like many, protected its own. There was no suspension, no investigation. He just moved on.
Speaker 2:They were like we checked a box.
Speaker 1:We questioned him right in 2005, the law did catch up to him for a small beat. He was convicted of yeah, he was convicted of possession of child sexual abuse images, and he was given a four-month suspended sentence. In france, the judicial authority is legally required to notify the national medical council to alert them about such an offense, but in this case, for some reason, that did not happen, so he went on for the next 12 years to assault 50 more victims. Shame on you guys, shame. Oh, okay, let's, let's do a chart, deep breath.
Speaker 2:Ready? It's time for a chart note. Let's do a chart note to change the vibe for a little bit. We need this chart note in our life. Chart note thank God for you.
Speaker 1:So this chart note segment we're going to learn about something that's happened in medicine and healthcare historically. So shout out to Dr Nicole Krieger, a friend of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Who was like?
Speaker 1:did you know this? And I was like I did not, and it's super uplifting. So it's very quick. But Martin Arthur Cooney, born Michael Cohen 1869 to March 1st 1950, was an American obstetrician of German Jewish descent, an advocate and pioneer of early neonatal technology technology.
Speaker 1:Cooney, also known as the incubator doctor, was best known in medical circles and public view for his amusement park sideshow, the infantorium, in which visitors paid 25 cents to view prematurely born babies displayed in incubators. What I know. It doesn't sound like something good, but yeah, hear me out. So after allegedly apprenticing under Pierre Constant Boudin, an established French obstetrician, in the 1890s, cooney began exhibiting incubators at expositions and fairgrounds in Europe and then in America. He's best known for his Inventorium at Coney Island, New York. During his active years at fairgrounds across America, it was widely believed that premature babies were weaklings who were unfit to survive into adulthood. Cooney was one of the first advocates for premature babies and his infantoriums became widely credited with saving the lives of over 6,500 premature babies. He's considered one of the first pioneers of neonatal technology. So he basically took these chicken incubators and put babies in them and and was basically educating the public because they didn't have, you know, back in the late 1800s or whatever.
Speaker 1:They didn't have movies or television or internet or any of that right people went to the you know, the local fairgrounds, and so he was basically like you know, not only that, give me some money, I'll show you this baby and guess what this baby's going to survive, and also that the incubator was a great way to keep them safe during that time period, and so I mean we still put them in those today in the NICUs.
Speaker 2:That's so cool.
Speaker 1:Isn't that crazy yeah.
Speaker 2:I just thought that was really cool. All right, the big old Dodge County fairs this week. You think they're going to have any?
Speaker 1:incubators Pay a quarter. See a baby. I would pay a quarter to see a baby yeah a quarter Geez.
Speaker 2:Louise, what a steal.
Speaker 1:Steal. Okay, so back to this horrific case. We'll get through it, listeners, and then the next time I do a case, it's going to be lighthearted, I promise. So in 2006, joelle was offered a fancy new position at a hospital in Campolet as a hospital practitioner, where he would work with Thierry Bonvelo, the president of the hospital's medical committee. Thierry had heard about the pedophilia case against Laskornik and was deeply concerned. He wrote a letter to the hospital's director and reported him to the national and local orders of the French National Order of Doctors. They requested a copy of his criminal record and then came back saying there was nothing to report. Oh sure. So how is conviction for possession of child sexual abuse images? Quote, unquote nothing. Well, I'll tell you, the filing system of the council had a bit of a backlog, and so the death of the doctor's file had not been updated to reveal his recent criminal convictions. He was officially appointed to his position on August 1st 2006. And then, a few months later, the files were updated. It was there in black and white that they had a convicted pedophile working for them, but nobody wanted to do anything about this unfortunate hire.
Speaker 1:The resulting consensus from the council was that ah well, he's already here he can stay. I mean, nobody's complained. And of course, there was that pesky shortage of doctors. What's a little sexual deviant behavior when the waiting list for surgeons is so long? Sex offense against children was taken so lightly that they didn't interfere with Dr Lusquarnick's promotion to the local medical board.
Speaker 1:Shortly after this discovery, the hospital ultimately shut down in 2008 due to a shortage of doctors. So he moved on to a hospital in western France. Even though the administrators of this hospital acknowledged his criminal history, they prioritized the shortages of doctors over his evil. Let me say that again, because I think I said evil, evil propensities. The director noted that Joël was very kind and that, since no physical insult had taken place to their knowledge, no restrictions were placed on him at all. He was welcome to the team. Later, the French press would refer to this as a structural flaw. But is it a structural failing or is it enabling abuse? The director went on to say we can't imagine a predator could hide beneath a white coat. Well, therein lies your problem people.
Speaker 2:Well, believe it because he was already convicted. Hello Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So Dr Liskornik transferred to the clinic in Jean-Jacques and moved there alone Because he and his wife had been separated. For a few years he continued to support her financially and then he would return to stay with her and the boys several times a year. The rest of the time he was reported to live a solitary existence and sink deeper and deeper into his sick world. He wrote in his diary that he grieved the loss of his family and friends, saying nothing will be left for me, but I will embrace my pedophilia and I will embrace it for the rest of my life. This is when he stopped washing himself or cleaning his home. He pretended to be normal when he was at the hospital, but the chasm between his professional and personal life widened considerably during this time. He began drinking a lot. Some reports said he was drinking up to a liter of whiskey a day. Jeez. Eventually he just lay a blanket in the middle of the living room and slept on that, letting the rest of the house go to rot. Occasionally he would walk around naked in his garden, as we know, behind that teensy-tinesy fence. Mold covered the walls and bodily fluids were found all over his diaries as well oh God, over time the windows of his house darkened with grime until the sun was eventually totally blocked out. According to his colleagues, they didn't notice anything was wrong at the time. Some even said that he seemed in control, not someone who was going off the rails at all. Nurses, of course, noticed his smell, but since he was a surgeon, they ignored his stench because authority was absolute and second only to God.
Speaker 1:Here's a diary entry from 9th of May 2013, that he made at 4.30 pm in the living room of his house. I am out of money, it is raining, I've got a cold and a cough, I am old and tired, I drink too much, but my little Veronique is always there, attentive to my distress. My beloved little girl snuggled up against my nude body. She was his favorite doll. She was the size of a five-year-old child and was always dressed in various princess gowns. He even installed what the courts refer to as a replica of female sex organ on the doll. It seemed that his dolls had begun to replace his real-life victims at this point, because the instances of abuse dwindled around this time. According to his journal entries, that is until 2017, when he assaulted the six-year-old daughter of his neighbor through the fence. As I mentioned in the beginning. He was 66 years old at the time and nearing retirement.
Speaker 1:After the girl's parents reported the incident to the police, an investigation was initiated. He was arrested and the house was searched. I described what they found, but I should add they found a box full of children's toys and underwear, and under Joelle's mattress they found a collection of hard drives. God bless the poor investigator who was tasked with looking through those. For real I know you can't pay people enough. Leskornik knew it was wrong because there was a note to his family written on top of the pile of drives instructing them to destroy them without watching. All in all, investigators removed 78 items from his home, including 27 external hard drives, nine USB sticks, a camera, three computers, 131 porn DVDs, 22 dolls and a boatload of sex toys and wigs.
Speaker 1:An investigator began analyzing the hard drives immediately. Over the next few years, all of those drives would come to reveal more than 300,000 photos and videos featuring child sex abuse. Two of the hard drives were dedicated to material exclusive of his own exploits on his own nieces. The evidence included photos of himself documenting his exploits that proved that he was also creating his own porn and participating in the crimes. There were documents, spreadsheets and, of course, the diaries, which contained 3,600 separate notes detailing the acts of abuse carried out against children, mostly at his various hospitals. The spreadsheets listed hundreds of victims' names, dates of birth and addresses. He even had files labeled gore which had images of piles of corpses, decapitations, torture and animal abuse in them. Those who were tasked with going through this never wholly recovered. The lead investigator was put on sick leave for three years. Imagine the hundreds and hundreds of victims across 30 years. Some of these children were as young as one years of age, so by the time anyone discovered what happened to them, they would be at least 31 years old. One victim known as Marie, now in her 30s, discovered her name and age 10 years old in his records, after forgetting the event. Imagine Soon, after his house was searched, lusquarnock appeared before a judge with a court-appointed lawyer and attended what became known as the family trial to account for his confessions of abuse against his own family.
Speaker 1:There he described himself as a cold person who has trouble feeling things. Laskronic denied everything, but as the evidence was presented, including diary entries that he himself had written describing his crimes in detail, he eventually admitted to everything. Bit by bit, he acknowledged that he was attracted to children, mainly to little girls around the ages of 9 and 10, because they were easier to seduce. He admitted to sexually assaulting his niece and two other children who were family friends in the 1980s, and his niece, fanny, was his first victim. She was 43 years old when she testified at this trial. She testified that she carried the guilt of not having said something at the time that could have stopped him from abusing all these other children. Not on you, fanny.
Speaker 2:This was not on you, no no, no, I was just thinking that your mom and your auntie knew and they did nothing.
Speaker 1:This was not on.
Speaker 1:You bless your heart the adults should have done something fanny yeah, as a result of the confessions, he was convicted of the sexual abuse of four girls his six-year-old neighbor, a four-year-old patient and two nieces. His nieces were just four years old when he started to abuse them. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. And I think they did this first. They did like the easy low-hanging fruitanging fruit, like okay, we can definitely get him on this and get him out of the way so he doesn't offend again, and then now we're going to go after all of the others and now we can continue our investigation and really nail him to the board with more concrete evidence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but at least we know you're put away right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're re-offending. So while he sat in his cell, they got to work identifying many victims detailed in his diaries and gathering evidence. Once the victims were identified, investigators had the horrible task of contacting them and, as I said, these victims were in their 30s and 40s by this point. A lot of them had lived their entire lives with no idea that they'd even been assaulted. Most of them didn't even recognize liskornik's name, which is understandable. I mean, he'd been their surgeon for a day or two when they were children, been assaulted. Most of them didn't even recognize Laskornik's name, which is understandable. I mean, he'd been their surgeon for a day or two when they were children. So now on to the trial.
Speaker 1:In February 2025, the trial began in Vannes, the most significant child sexual abuse case in France. What traumatized me the most, the police said a farmer on a stand when he was summoned to the police station, he thought it was because he was guilty of something, like everyone else in such situations. In reality, it was worse, he recalled. I learned I was a victim. In a 20-minute hearing, including the formalities, a police officer told him he'd been raped under anesthetic in the operating theater some 30 years earlier. On an early winter morning in 2020, the farmer found himself alone in this police station's parking lot. His life smashed in two In front of the court, he tried not to break down. It turned me upside down. He managed to whisper. He glanced at his wife seated in the front row, and she burst into tears for both of them.
Speaker 1:Liskwarnik admitted to the vast majority of the 299 rapes and assaults committed between 1989 and 2014. He confessed to abusing his own granddaughter in court, creating further shock. One victim, a woman named Celine Matteau, was told by the police that this happened to her At just seven years old. She'd been rushed to the hospital with acute appendicitis. Shortly after the operation, she underwent a significant change. She began cutting her hair and swapping her dresses for pants. She suffered from intimacy issues for many years. She now believes it was because of the abuse. Most victims had no idea they were abused because often they were unconscious when it happened. Some say it had a detrimental impact on them, but they couldn't pinpoint exactly what happened. Some were fine and had no idea. All victims who were identified had the awful opportunity to read the diary entry that described what had happened to them. Celine refused, but not everyone did. I can't imagine this. I don't know what I would do in this situation. What would you do, amanda?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. I, I don't think, I would want to know, yeah it's a horrible because, like, there's a part of you that does want to know what exactly happened to you because it happened to you, but also once you know that you can never unknow that yeah and and think about these kids, these babies like that happened to me when I was one year old. I mean it's horrible, no matter what age they are. But yeah.
Speaker 1:Amelie levisseau found out the terrible news at the age of 43. She read an article in her local newspaper about the family trial and contacted her GP who checked her medical records and saw that Le Squarnick had removed her appendix in 1991. She began seeing a therapist and stated that suppressed memories resurfaced, she told a local newspaper.
Speaker 1:In a few seconds I was back to being nine years old again in the recovery room of the clinic. Everything came back the feelings, the smells, the cold, the heat, the rape, all of it, oh my God. A young boy named Matisse was admitted to a hospital with appendicitis in June of 2007. His grandparents remember him as a happy child at first and very charming. After he was discharged from the hospital following an overnight stay, he began to change. He stopped being happy and became aggressive with everyone, and as a teenager he distanced himself from his family and started using drugs. He was in and out of rehab.
Speaker 1:11 years after his hospital stay. Police arrived at his door and told him that he had been mentioned in Liskwarnik's diaries. They read an excerpt aloud to him. His grandmother said it was as if the sky fell on his head. They tried to support him, but he refused to talk about it. Two years later, matisse died of an overdose at the age of 24. His grandparents blamed the abuse Absolutely. In May 2025, after a month-long trial that included hundreds of plaintiffs, 65 lawyers and almost 500 journalists, joelle Esquenic was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The maximum penalty was at least two-thirds of the sentence required before eligible for parole. So he could be out in 15 years doing that.
Speaker 2:I'm like can we do 20 plus the 15 he was already in for, At least Guys.
Speaker 1:Anyone? Yeah, if he can commit 299 rapes in 25 years without detection, what does that say about our system? And investigators think there's even more than 400 victims. They just didn't have enough evidence or sufficient information to identify all of them.
Speaker 2:And also, just because he's sitting in jail doesn't mean he's rehabbing Like. These are deep-rooted issues.
Speaker 1:So once he gets out, we're just going to expect that that yeah he's like I, I will be this person until I die. He said it himself in his diaries and so, yeah, let's let him out of jail. Guys, and this has such a broad reach. It's not just the children and their families tragedy. He'll be killed in prison, honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one can help I mean honestly, I'm usually I don't know how I feel about the death penalty, but in this case this guy doesn't. We shouldn't be keeping him alive. What's he here for Nothing? To add to all of this, tragically, a French lawyer who defended him died in an apparent suicide recently. I mean interesting. Imagine the impact that this having to defend someone like this. No, and this was recently. A prosecutor made an announcement on wednesday, july 9th, and we're recording this the 14th. An article from lamont news states maxime tessier, 34, defended Lascornic, 74, who confessed that his child was sexually assaulting or raping 298 patients between 89 and 14, most of them children. Everything points to suicide. Frédéric Taillet, chief prosecutor in the western French city of Rennes, said of the lawyer's death, adding that an investigation had started. Tessier, a father of two young children, had a very high regard for justice and was very, very demanding towards himself. I mean, he probably just was so conflicted over having to defend somebody like this that would be the worst job yeah, and that quote was from katherine glon.
Speaker 1:His associate, tessier, was one of two lawyers defending lusquarnick, one of the most and, as we talked about infamous sex predators, a prosecutor and another prosecutor in the case referred to the former doctor as the devil dressed in a white coat.
Speaker 2:I mean that's the understatement of the year he's more than a devil, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:So france's medical council is suing itself at least, that's at least admitting their failure and pledging reform. But you know what reputation and inaction enabled the predator. So it's too little, too late, if you ask me. Jo Joel Luskornik may be behind bars, but he shattered hundreds and hundreds of lives. This wasn't an isolated crime. It was a tragedy of institutional neglect as well. So if this episode was difficult to hear, you're not alone. We're going to include international support resources in the show notes for survivors of medical abuse and sexual violence.
Speaker 2:Jenna, jenna.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Good job getting through that horrific tale. Thank, you. And while that is so disgusting and horrible to uncover, it is important. It is important. Yeah, I mean this isn't. I can't believe this is a recent. This is so recent.
Speaker 1:This sounds like something that happened maybe in the 20s or maybe in the 1800s. Right, they're just wrapping this up now, like a couple weeks ago. What the hell? And it's not just the, I mean, it's not because it's france, it's it's everywhere, you know, oh we have a shortage of doctors. We couldn't possibly question the doctor of a four-year-old, and the four-year-olds don't even have the language or the understanding to be able to come forward. And then, if they're unconscious, what the hell I mean?
Speaker 2:it's disgusting that poor gal that after she learned that all the memories came flooding back, like her brain just suppressed them until it was said out loud, and then everything came back. I mean, obviously something them until it was said out loud and then everything came back.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously something happened and it was almost like she was trying to protect herself by cutting her hair and wearing pants and like I mean oh yeah, for sure your hair and wearing pants, if that's that's what you want to do, but it was like a sudden change but more like a protective, yeah measure after her. Yeah, isn't that crazy? What I don't know?
Speaker 2:that's terrible like if I don't look like a girl, then maybe a man won't want to do that to me. Yeah, exactly, yeah, oh, this is so sad, so sad, so I was just thinking okay, wait, so he got how many years? 20 it was 15, but then he got 20 yeah and it was 74, so I mean, hopefully he'll at least be dead.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or killed he's going to have to be in solitary because I don't know If there's ever prison justice anywhere, bring it.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm sorry, I should say that we're not condoning murder. We're just saying. Typically, people who offend against children are often innocent.
Speaker 1:If you happen to slip on a banana peel, a trail of banana peels on the way to the canteen. God forbid, god forbid, yeah, yeah, oopsie, poopsie. Worst things could happen. I'm just saying, yeah, I wouldn't be losing sleep.
Speaker 2:In fact, I'd probably sleep a bit better knowing that, you know, I would just like also want that house torn down. Yeah, I wouldn't even want to live by that house. Right, it's disgusting.
Speaker 1:Well, and you know what, Thank God, they said something they could have told their little girl like oh you didn't see what you thought you saw. I mean, it's easy to brush kids off sometimes, you know, and it seems like probably a lot of people did, which is why this lasted so long. Probably a lot of people did, which is why this lasted so long. Okay, so this week's medical mishap was recommended by Meemum. Shout out to Jillian.
Speaker 1:As some of you may know, I grew up in Dahran, saudi Arabia, where my father, the country's first audiologist, established the kingdom's first speech and hearing clinics. And now patients from all over the Middle East come for ENT and audiology care and there's an entire hospital in Riyadh dedicated just for cochlear implant patients. Fun fact hearing loss, especially congenital sensorineural hearing loss, is more common in Saudi Arabia than in many countries, mostly due to high rates of consanguinity, which is close relative marriage. Studies show that children from such marriages have a three and a half times greater risk of congenital hearing loss, according to WHO, the World Health Organization. Okay, so back to me. I was an itchy child, always polishing my nose and leaving soggy tissues in my wake. My dad took me to see his friend Dr Wiley, an American ENT specialist with a specialty in allergies who worked at the same hospital as my dad. Dr Wiley was so funny I love going to visit His silly dad. Jokes always made me laugh. Dr Wiley treated my younger sister with allergy injections for about a year before I went to see him Now my sister used to have to get up at some unholy hour like six in the morning before school to get her shots for months on end. So when it was suggested that maybe I needed shots too, I did a little pre-work before my scratch test. So let's keep in mind that this was the mid 1980s and we didn't have internet back then and there was no Google machine. So word of mouth was practically the only way to learn things, unless it was printed in an encyclopedia and you had the right volume or letter to consult. So I learned through the elementary grapevine that you could cheat the test by taking Tylenol and antihistamines before you go in for your scratch test. Turns out that must have been true because it worked. Still, dr Wiley must have been a bit puzzled because I had the constant rhinitis, chronic puffy eyes and hyponasal speech of a mouth breather.
Speaker 1:A nasal exam confirmed his suspicions. I had nasal polyps and they needed to be removed so that I could breathe through my nose. It was to be a minor in-office procedure. My mom picked me up after school one day and we headed to his office. The mood was jokey and light.
Speaker 1:A big brown bottle sat on the tray table near Dr Wiley's stool. It had one of those labels on it that you print yourself with those little label makers, and in the old days the letters were raised. I remember it to this day. The bottle was brown and had a tube that ended in a puffer bulb like a vintage perfume spray bottle, and the label clearly read cocaine. I joked with my mom who sat across from my exam chair Look, mom, I'm about to snort cocaine in front of you. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:We all had a chuckle as Dr Wiley inserted a tube attached to the bottle and instructed me to snort once, twice on each side. After a few nose-tingling minutes he pulled out what looked like a metal whisk but with just one wire loop on it. A flip of his eye mirror and he was quickly spelunking in my nasal cavity, still spinning the dad jokes. He quickly cinched the wire loop around a polyp and tightened it. He told me to take a deep breath and hold it, and jerked his hand back, ripping what felt like my brain out in the process. Blood started pouring out of my nose and my face felt like it exploded. I glanced at my mother, whose face had turned white. She looked about ready to faint. Dr Wiley, who was now more like Dr Evil in my mind, mopped me up and comforted my mother. My face was streaming with tears. Eventually, when my sobs settled down, the Joker wheeled towards me with a devil's whisk pointed at my face. I think I missed some. He teased Let me have a last little peek. I laughed until I realized he wasn't joking and he was actually going back for more. I kicked him and punched his arm out of the way. He got the hint and I got to keep my remaining polyps to this day.
Speaker 1:Today this procedure is typically performed under general anesthesia and I have PTSD about anything going up my nose. Imagine my suffering with all the COVID swabs we've had to take in the last five years. So thanks, mom, for bringing up that past trauma. You're welcome listeners, oh gosh. So due to technical difficulties, I'm going to assume Amanda's laughing like crazy at my little story here and I think we're going to hear about a nefarious nurse next week, listeners, so you need to stay tuned. You put it on here. I don't see it. Oh, oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So next week, amanda's going to be covering a nefarious nurse, I think, and she says it's a doozy. This nurse's ambition was to have killed more people helpless people than any other man or woman who ever lived. Oh evil. I can't wait to learn more about that, but meanwhile, don't miss a beat.
Speaker 1:Subscribe or follow Doctoring the Truth wherever you enjoy your podcasts, for stories that shock, intrigue and educate. Trust, after all, is a delicate thing. You can text us directly on our website at DoctoringTheTruth, at Buzzsproutcom, or email us your story ideas and medical mishaps at DoctoringTheTruth at gmail. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Doctoring the Truth Podcast, and Facebook Doctoring the Truth, and we're on Instagram at Doctoring the Truth Podcast and Facebook Doctoring the Truth, and we're on TikTok at Doctoring the Truth and Edodpod E-D-A-U-D-P-O-D. Don't forget to download, rate and review so we can bring you more content next week. Until then, stay safe and stay suspicious. Bye.
