Former surgeon, Joël Le Scouarnec, has drawn global attention after he admitted to 'committing hideous acts' during the hearing of which has been dubbed as France's largest child sexual abuse case on Monday.

The trial of Joël Le Scouarnec, who is charged with the rape and sexual assault of 299 people in France over decades, is set to begin. The alleged victims’ average age was 11.

VANNES, France (Reuters) - A former surgeon accused of raping or sexually assaulting hundreds of young patients, some while they were under anaesthetic, went on trial on Monday in France's largest ever child sexual abuse case.

France braced for horror details in largest-ever child sex abuse trial - A former surgeon accused of raping or sexual abusing 299 people, mostly children

Former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec went on trial Monday for raping or abusing 299 victims, mostly child patients, in a case spanning over three decades.

Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, will face hundreds of victims during a four-month trial in Vannes, Brittany. Most of them were children, who were his patients.

A retired surgeon accused of raping and sexually assaulting hundreds of young patients, some while they were under anaesthetic, told the opening of his trial in western France on Monday (Feb 24) that he had committed "despicable" acts.

A former surgeon is set to stand trial in France on Monday for the alleged rape or sexual abuse of 299 victims, most of them children who were his patients, in what investigators and his own notebooks describe as a pattern of violence spanning over three decades.

The white-haired 74-year-old, who wore glasses and a black zip-up sweater over a grey shirt, was addressing the court in Vannes, north-west France, on the first day of the largest child abuse trial in French history.