• Tuesday was the second day of the appeal trial of Lionel Guedj, the first in the presence of the former dentist the richest in France, accused of mutilating hundreds of patients in the northern districts.
  • Absent at the opening for health reasons, the man appeared weakened, after nine months of detention after his conviction at first instance.
  • After acknowledging negligence, Lionel Guedj was aggressive and annoyed at the end of the day.

It is an understatement to say that Lionel Guedj was expected, Tuesday, at the barracks of Muy in Marseille. The appeal trial of the former millionaire dentist, sentenced to eight years in prison at first instance, has officially begun last Thursday. The lawyers of the civil parties, the former patients of the northern districts who claim to be victims of mutilation, the journalists, all are there, ready to look into this same extraordinary trial room on this sprawling case.

All but one. And not least: the famous dentist, protagonist of this important case, accused of having devitalized thousands of healthy teeth to become the richest practitioner in France. At the opening last Thursday, the defendants' box of the Court of Appeal remained empty. Lionel Guedj was hospitalized, victim according to his lawyer of a malaise after a malfunction of his pacemaker.

An unrecognizable man

This Tuesday morning, once again, the box is empty. To the audience, the president of the Court of Appeal reads the results of the medical expertise. With two notorious pieces of information. First, Lionel Guedj's state of health is entirely compatible with his appearance in court. Then, the pacemaker... does not exist. Lionel Guedj wears another type of device, a subcutaneous holter, a small device that records heart rate.

At midday, after long minutes of waiting, a crowd crowds into the courtyard of this former military barracks. When the police van arrives, the phones are out to film an unrecognizable man, emaciated, his features drawn under a thick black beard. Behind the car, his father, Jean-Claude Guedj cries. The septuagenarian, also a dentist alongside his son, was also sentenced at first instance to five years in prison with a warrant of committal, before being released on parole in March pending the appeal trial.

"I may have made some negligence"

Greeted at first instance by insults from the victims, Lionel Guedj enters the courtroom for his appeal trial in silence, and limping. Looking circled, mouth ajar, looking dazed, he seems totally lost. After several hours devoted first to requests for nullity and the reminder of the facts, the former dentist finally takes the floor. And the Lionel Guedj who prided himself on having passed his exams the first time and having been trained by the greatest in the first instance has obviously moved on appeal into a man who wants to be much more modest. "I never said I was the best dentist in the world," he says, a blackened notepad in one hand, a pen in the other. "I dispute the facts," he explains. I have never made willful mistakes. I may have been somewhat negligent. »

These massive unjustified devitalizations have been highlighted by expert reports that Lionel Guedj disputes. "Out of 100 files I had handled, I identified 90 expert reports that represent anomalies," says the former dentist energetically. I have the physical proof and I will prove it to you. I have a binder like that that I will share with you. I even have a file, it's the pompom. One person made an expertise. And this person, I never treated him! »

A "youthful mistake"

So, if he finds himself there, it is because of a "mistake of youth" according to him: that of having been an overly dedicated dentist who has never refused patients. "The firm grew considerably from the outset," he says. And people would come to my house and say, "You redid my cousin's teeth, I'm missing teeth too." And to affirm a little later, questioned on the proximity that Lionel Guedj maintained with his patients, to the point of tutting them: "I have always been very human and very close to my patients. I am in joys and sorrows with them. »

Also, if Lionel Guedj charged 28 times more crowns than his colleagues, it was, for this practitioner, almost in spite of himself. "I was sent patients who had big, big dental problems," he insists, under the sighs of exasperation of the victims present in the large cubic room.

"Shut up for a second"

A very lucrative practice that allowed him to generate a colossal turnover. In a few years, Lionel Guedj has built up a vast patrimony, on credit, of about 13 million euros. Hundreds of apartments on the Côte d'Azur, in ski resorts, in La Rochelle or Perpignan, works of art, luxury cars... "It was tax exemption operations, of course," justifies the former dentist. Caught by the throat by debts, would Lionel Guedj have fallen into a vicious circle forcing him at a frantic pace? Without thinking, Lionel Guedj answers with a touch of annoyance: "Compared to my income at the time, I was well below my debt threshold."

Hours pass, and annoyance becomes aggressiveness as the sun wanes. Assailed by questions about his practices, Lionel Guedj loses his temper, removes his black vest by dint of warming his mind, even cutting off several times the speech of the president of the Court of Appeal. "Shut up for a second," even his lawyer Julien Pinelli warns. An attitude of the former practitioner who does not fail to challenge Me Gilles Martha, the lawyer of the Social Security. "I see that you still have a lot of energy, and that's very good for the future." The trial is scheduled to last until the end of June.

  • Justice
  • Dentist
  • Northern districts of Marseille
  • Marseille
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
  • PACA
  • Court of Appeal
  • Lawsuit
  • Lionel Guedj