‘Monster of Avignon’: Moment ‘disgusting’ husband’s crimes caught up with him

A woman has revealed her torment upon discovering the horrific secrets her father had hidden for years — as new footage shows the disturbing moment he was caught.

4 min read

September 15, 2024 - 6:28PM

Moment police catch up with 'Monster of Avignon'

Caroline Darian recalls fond memories of her idyllic French upbringing with her loving “papa”.

“Your voice when we were going uphill, ‘Don’t give up! Courage!’” she recounts of his words during a bike ride through the countryside. “Your joy at reaching the Madeleine pass. We take in the breathtaking view together, in silence.”

Another happy memory — a holiday when she was 11.

“Winter 1990,” she wrote.

“A skiing holiday at Risoul in the Hautes-Alps. You took me on my first red run, my first red slope. I’m not yet very confident on skis. At the top of the slope you went ahead. Terrified, I went on alone, slipping badly, learning how to ski. It takes me almost two hours to finally arrive. I end up in tears. I scream when I see you. You say, ‘You see, you got there in the end. I told you so.’”

Caroline Darian arrives at Avignon courthouse to attend the trial of her father. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

But the 46-year-old’s blissful memories are from a time before she learned of her father’s unspeakably horrific crimes against her mother — and herself.

Now they haunt Ms Darian, whose 71-year-old father Dominique Pelicot has come to be known as the “Monster of Avignon”.

Pelicot, a retired grandfather, is currently on trial for allegedly abusing his wife between 2011 and 2020, drugging her with powerful sleeping pills and then recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her, in one of the worst sexual abuse cases in the country’s history.

It’s alleged that he recruited 72 men via an internet chatroom to rape Gisele Pelicot, 71, over 10 years after giving her powerful sleeping pills. Fifty-one of the men have been identified.

Pelicot allegedly joined in at times while filming. There are also claims he secretly took indecent images of his daughter in her underwear. These photographs were stored in a file called “The S**t’s Daughter”.

Ms Darian believes she was also drugged and won’t ever know if she was also raped.

Dominique Pelicot, the ‘Monster of Avignon’. Picture: Supplied

Gisele Pelicot arrives at the trial. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

The shocking alleged crimes emerged after Pelicot was caught filming under women’s skirts in a supermarket in Carpentras in September 2020.

While he was originally fined €100 ($165), detectives later found other incriminating images on his devices.

There were 3800 videos and photos of his wife being raped, along with the nicknames and telephone numbers of alleged rapists.

It comes as footage of the disturbing moment police caught up with Pelicot was obtained by French media over the weekend.

The mobile phone video shows the white-haired grandfather being confronted by a security guard at the supermarket, who tells him “four clients” have made a complaint.

Pelicot, dressed in red shorts and a grey T-shirt, is told to “not move” as police are on the way, as he’s branded “disgusting”.

Footage of the moment Pelicot was caught ‘upskirting’. Picture: Supplied

He is also told not to erase the videos until police arrive.

For married mother-of-one Ms Darian, remembering the good times with her dad are “real torture” and she is “ashamed of ever loving him”, according to her diaries obtained by The Daily Mail and published in France as the memoir I No Longer Call Him Daddy.

Ms Darian began writing the diaries to document her thoughts after her father’s arrest in November 2020.

“You no longer exist for me,” she wrote.

“We thought you were good, honest and loyal. We may never know how perverse you are.”

Later, she wrote, “Where is the man who protected me, took me to school, cheered me on when I was playing sport, encouraged my studies and later my career? The man who took care of his grandchildren, played with them and seemed fulfilled by his family life. How can one lead a double life and deceive the world for so many years?”

Gisele supported by her children at the courthouse. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

Ms Darian also recalled how her mother helped her father after he complained of the conditions in jail, with her packing a bag of clothes for him. He had also smuggled a letter to Gisele from another prisoner, in which he begged her not to leave him and asked for forgiveness.

Her mother kept the letter a secret, with Ms Darian later finding out about it.

“Because of my father, I am losing my mother,” she wrote.

“My father has turned her inside out to see if he still has a hold over her.”

Gisele had defended her husband at one point, saying, “He wasn’t always the devil you describe. He has done a lot for you and also for your brothers. I was happy with him. I would rather remember the good times.”

The shocking case has rocked France. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

Gisele requested the trial of her husband be public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Currently in divorce proceedings, Gisele spoke of being troubled by strange memory lapses until she was contacted by police about the alleged abuse.

Ms Darian told the court on Friday morning that she found out what had happened on November 2, 2020 from her mother who told her “your father is going to jail”.

“My life was literally turned upside down,” she said.

“My mother said, ‘I spent most of the day at the police station. Your father drugged me to rape me with strangers. I was made to look at the photos.’ It was what you call a tipping point, the start of a slow descent into hell where you have no idea how low you will sink. I called my brothers … We didn’t know what was happening to us.”