VANNES, France (AP) — 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.

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 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.