Joël Le Scouarnec is accused of attacking 299 patients at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014

A former French surgeon on trial for the sexual abuse of hundreds of patients has told the court he used his status as a doctor to attack children but still believed he was a good medical practitioner.

“I was a surgeon who benefited from my status to attack children, I don’t deny that,” Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, told a court in Vannes, Brittany, on Tuesday, in what is one of France’s largest ever child abuse cases.