VANNES, France — A former surgeon went on 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.

“I committed odious acts,” Joël Le Scouarnec told the court in Vannes. “They were only children.”

The 74-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, on top of 15 years he has been serving after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of children. Le Scouarnec told the court he acknowledges committing rapes and sexual assaults. But he said he regards himself as not guilty of those crimes in some of the cases.

“I am aware that these injuries are irreparable,” he said. “I cannot go back in time but I owe it to all of these people and their loved ones to take responsibility for my actions.”

Campaigners for the rights of women and children protested outside the courthouse before Le Scouarnec’s trial.

— The Associated Press