‘I am a rapist’: Husband’s sick admission after drugging, sexually assaulting his own wife
The accused rapist at the centre of a criminal case that’s disgusted Europe has admitted to a horrific scheme involving his own wife.
The rapist at the centre of a criminal case that’s disgusted the world and sparked protests in France has admitted to repeatedly drugging his own wife and inviting dozens of strangers to assault her while she lay unconscious and oblivious.
“I admit to the charges in their entirety,” Dominique Pelicot, 71, told a court in Avignon, France overnight.
Pelicot begged for the forgiveness of his now former wife, and victim, 72-year-old Gisele Pelicot, but claimed he was no different to the scores of co-defendants whom he recruited online to take part in the sexual abuse.
“I am a rapist, like the others in this room,” he said.
“She did not deserve this.”
The horrific details of the case have been open to the public at Ms Pelicot’s request. She wishes to “raise awareness” and ensure “events like these never happen again”.
Pelicot recruited well more than 50 men online to come to the couple’s home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, and assault his wife.
The retired electricity worker would crush powerful sleeping pills into his wife’s food and drinks to knock her out.
She was so heavily sedated that she was completely unaware of the alleged abuse that went on for almost a decade, between 2011 and 2020, her lawyers have claimed.
Pelicot allegedly gave the men he recruited strict instructions to make sure his wife of 50 years remained unconscious as they sexually abused her during the night.
On Tuesday, local time, Pelicot used a walking stick to slowly enter the courtroom in Avignon. His ex-wife was present for his testimony.
Tuesday marked the first time he had spoken at any length since the trial began.
Pelicot recounted having a “difficult” childhood, saying his parents “assaulted each other”.
He briefly mentioned the “traumatic” experiences of being raped when he was nine years old and again, on a construction site, when he was an apprentice.
“I always carried these traumatising events with me,” he said, his eyes welling up and his voice shaking.
“You’re not born this way. You become it.”
‘I must pay for it’
Pelicot’s ex-wife, who obtained a divorce from him last month, remained stoic as he spoke, then took the stand herself.
“Not for a single second did I doubt this man,” she said.
“I loved this man for 50 years. I would have sacrificed my own two hands for him.”
Her former husband asked her for forgiveness.
“I am guilty of what I have done. I beg my wife, my children, my grandchildren, to accept my apologies. I ask for forgiveness, even though it is unacceptable,” he said.
“I messed it all up. I must pay for it.”
Pelicot also offered an apology to another woman, with whose husband he is accused of raping using the same method.
“This is a confessional trial,” said Pelicot’s lawyer Beatrice Zavarro.
“It will continue like this, you can be sure of it. At the end of this trial we will know everything about Dominique Pelicot.”
The defendant said he “never touched” his two sons and daughter, although investigators found naked pictures of his daughter and intimate photos of his two daughters-in-law on his computer, which were taken without their knowledge.
He was only found out in 2020 after he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket. Police then discovered he had meticulously documented the abuse of his wife, stored in files on his computer.
“There was a certain pleasure to it,” he said, “but it was also a sort of guarantee.”
He pointed out that it had helped track down suspects, causing several co-defendants to look up or smile nervously.
Fireman, nurse, journalist
Investigators listed 72 men suspected of having taken part in abusing Ms Pelicot, other than her husband.
They succeeded in identifying 50, aged from 26 to 74, all of whom are also on trial.
Pelicot’s testimony is expected to be decisive for all these co-defendants, four of whose cases are set to be heard in the coming days.
Some of the accused have admitted he told them he was drugging his then-wife, while others claim they believed they were participating in a swinger couple’s fantasy.
Seventeen are in custody, in addition to Pelicot himself, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men. One co-defendant is being tried in absentia.
The suspects include a fireman, a male nurse, a prison guard and a journalist.
The case has prompted outrage across France, with thousands demonstrating in cities over the weekend to demand an end to rape.
Pelicot was excused from hearings for much of last week for health reasons and did not attend court on Monday.
But he returned to the dock on Tuesday after a green light from doctors, with his lawyer saying he would be allowed “regular rest”.
Defendant pleads about childhood trauma
After days of delay due to what his lawyers said was a kidney stone and urinary tract infection, Pelicot, seated in a wheelchair, testified that the charges against him were true.
With his ex-wife looking on from the packed gallery, and his voice trembling and barely audible at times, he started a long day of testimony by trying to explain childhood traumas that he said scarred and moulded him into the person he had become.
“One is not born a pervert, one becomes a pervert,” he told the judges after recounting, sometimes in tears, the experience of having been allegedly raped by a male hospital nurse at age nine, and then having been forced to take part in a gang rape at age 14.
Pelicot also claimed that for years, his father sexually abused a young girl his family had taken in, and that his brother later said their father had invited other men to do the same.
He said he regretted that his parents didn’t let him continue his studies after he turned 14.
Pelicot said that around that time, he tried to persuade his mother to leave the house with him, but “she never wanted to”.
“I don’t really want to talk about this, I am just ashamed of my father. In the end, I didn’t do any better,’’ said Pelicot, who faces 20 years in prison if convicted.
After he spoke about his difficult upbringing, Ms Pelicot was given the opportunity to address the court.
‘It is hard for me’: Victim speaks
“It is hard for me to hear this. For 50 years, I lived with a man. I couldn’t imagine even one second that he could have committed acts of rape,” Ms Pelicot said, adding that she “trusted this man entirely”.
The two looked at each other, him from behind the dock’s glass window and her from the witness stand.
“I am guilty,” he told her.
“I regret everything I did. I ask you for forgiveness, even if it is unpardonable.”
Asked if she wanted to respond, Ms Pelicot turned and left the stand.
When asked about his feelings toward his Pelicot said she didn’t deserve what he did.
“From my youth, I remember only shocks and traumas, forgotten partly thanks to her,” the defendant said.
“I was crazy about her. She replaced everything. I ruined everything.”
A supermarket security guard caught Pelicot, in 2020, secretly shooting video footage up women’s skirts, according to court documents.
During a search of his house and electronic devices, police found thousands of photos and videos of men engaging in sexual acts with his unconscious wife.
With the recordings, police were able to track down most of the 72 suspects they were seeking, but not all.
In addition to the photos and videos of Ms Pelicot, investigators found photos of the couple’s daughter, Caroline Darian, and two daughters-in-law, that were surreptitiously taken while they were in their underwear, getting undressed or taking showers, according to authorities.
While her mother has stayed remarkably calm throughout the trial, Ms Darian walked out of the courtroom on Tuesday as her father was being asked about photos of her that were found on his laptop.
“Excuse me, I’m going to vomit,” she said, before rushing out.
When police officers called Ms Pelicot in for questioning in late 2020, she initially told them her husband was “a great guy”, according to legal documents.
They then showed her some photos. She left, and later divorced her husband.
– with AFP
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