France, May 28 -- A French court is expected to deliver its verdict Wednesday in the country's largest-ever paedophilia case. Former surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec stands accused of raping and sexually assaulting 299 children over more than two decades - charges he has confessed to. For the victims, the case is not just about one man, it's a national reckoning.

"If a trial with 300 victims doesn't change this blind society, then what will?" asked one survivor in April, standing on the steps of the courthouse in Vannes, Brittany.

That question resonates as France awaits the ruling in a case that has revealed both the crimes of the country's worst child sex offender and the failures of the institutions that enabled him.

Le Scouarnec, now 74, ...