'Star' French doctor accused of fatally poisoning 12 patients goes on trial

Frederic Pechier, an anaesthetist now suspected of poisoning patients in 32 cases (with 13 lethal outcomes) at the Besancon hospital arrives at the Besancon courthouse on March 8, 2023. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)

A French doctor goes on trial next week accused of intentionally poisoning 30 child and adult patients, 12 of whom died, in an alleged attempt to show off his resuscitation skills and discredit co-workers.

Frederic Pechier, 53, worked as an anaesthetist at two clinics in the eastern city of Besancon, when patients went into cardiac arrest in suspicious circumstances between 2008 to 2017. Twelve could not be resuscitated.

Pechier's youngest alleged victim, four-year-old Teddy, survived two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsil surgery in 2016. The doctor's oldest alleged victim was 89.

The trial, which begins in Besancon on September 8 and will last until December, caps a seven-year investigation that stunned the medical community.

The proceedings come after a court in May sentenced retired doctor Joel Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison after he confessed to sexually abusing or raping 298 patients, most of them children, between 1989 and 2014.

Pechier, a father of three who has been banned from practising medicine, faces life imprisonment if convicted. He has denied the charges.

Controversially, Pechier is not currently behind bars and is under judicial supervision, an alternative to pre-trial detention.

"I've been waiting for this for 17 years," said Amandine Iehlen, whose 53-year-old father died of cardiac arrest during kidney surgery in 2008.

An autopsy revealed an overdose of lidocaine, a local anaesthetic.

Prosecutor Etienne Manteaux has said the case was "unprecedented in French legal history".

'Thought of himself as Zorro'

An investigation was launched in 2017, after suspicious cardiac arrests during operations on patients otherwise considered low risk.

Pechier is suspected of tampering with paracetamol bags or anaesthesia pouches of his colleagues in order to create operating room emergencies where he could intervene to show off his supposed resuscitating talents.

"What he is accused of is poisoning healthy patients in order to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict," Manteaux said.

"Frederic Pechier was the first responder when cardiac arrest occurred," he added. "He always had a solution."

Pechier has argued that the majority of poisonings were the result of "medical errors" made by his colleagues.

"I am being accused of heinous crimes that I did not commit," he said in 2017.

Some colleagues described the doctor as a "star anaesthetist", while others said he came across as arrogant and manipulative.

One coworker claimed Pechier was "certain he was the best" and liked to "think of himself as Zorro".

Over the course of the seven-year probe, investigators examined more than 70 reports of "serious adverse events", medical jargon for unexpected complications or deaths among patients.

The cases of 30 patients who suffered cardiac arrest during surgery at the Saint-Vincent Clinic and the Franche-Comte Polyclinic made it to trial.

The investigation was launched in January 2017, after a 36-year-old woman suffered a suspicious cardiac arrest during an operation.

Suspicion quickly fell on Pechier, who was detained and charged two months later.

Pechier "has every intention of proving his innocence in this case", his defence team told AFP.

'I just want people to listen'

A criminal psychology evaluation of the accused, carried out in 2019 and roundly criticised by his defence lawyers, pointed to a "controlling personality" and "perverse traits".

Other psychological and psychiatric assessments have not identified any particular pathology or personality disorder, describing Pechier as an intelligent man.

He is also believed to suffer from depression.

In 2014, he attempted suicide, while in 2021, he fell from the window at his parents' house in a drunken state.

More than 150 civil parties, including a trade union for anaesthetists, will be represented at the trial.

It is a "dizzying case" due to its "scale, duration and technical complexity", said Frederic Berna, one of 55 lawyers representing the victims.

Berna said he doubted the court would hear any "sincere and honest explanations from Pechier".

"He is really someone who does not take no for an answer and constantly tries to impose his opinion by force," Brena said.

Ahead of the trial Pechier said he was "not particularly anxious".

"I have to fight one last time to bring this to an end," he told broadcaster BFMTV.

"I'm not tired. I'm not angry. I just want people to listen for once," he said.