A French man accused of drugging his then-wife and inviting dozens of men to rape her over nearly a decade testified in court on Tuesday in a case that has shocked the country.
Dominique Pelicot, now 71, faces 20 years in prison if convicted. While he previously confessed to investigators, the court testimony will be crucial for a panel of judges to decide on the fate of some 50 other men standing trial next to him, all accused of raping Gisele Pelicot.
Gisele Pelicot speaks to the media as she leaves the Avignon courthouse at the beginning of the trial.Credit: AP
“I admit to the charges in their entirety,” Dominique Pelicot told the court, adding: “I am a rapist just like all the others in this room. They knew everything.
“I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apologies. I regret what I did. I ask for your forgiveness, even if it is not forgivable.”
Prosecutors say Dominique Pelicot offered sex with his then-wife of 50 years on a website and filmed the abuse over several years. Prosecutors allege he drugged his wife to facilitate the rapes.
He faces charges including rape, gang rape and various privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images.
Gisele Pelicot leaves an earlier court hearing in Avignon with her sons, David (left), Florian (background) and her lawyer Stephane Babonneau (right).Credit: AP
He was arrested in 2020 following an unrelated incident in which a security guard caught him allegedly filming up the skirt of a woman in a supermarket.
Police searched Pelicot’s house and electronic devices, and found thousands of photos and videos of men engaging in sexual acts with Gisele Pelicot while she appeared unconscious in her own home.
With the recordings, police were able to track down the majority of the 72 suspects also believed to have raped Gisele.
In addition to Dominique Pelicot, 50 of those other men are on trial in Avignon, 40 kilometres south-west of Mazan, where the couple lived in the south of France.
The other men – aged 26 to 74 – face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.
They have not commented publicly on the charges, but some have reportedly told police that they believed Gisele Pelicot had consented to sex.
Dominique Pelicot disputed any assertions of consent in the courtroom on Tuesday.
Poor recent health required the judges to push back his hearing several times last week. His lawyer previously said he wanted to use the hearing to make an apology to his family.
“I don’t blame her for anything, I was very happy with her – she was the opposite of my mother, completely rebellious,” national newspaper Le Figaro reported Pelicot telling the court in reference to his ex-wife, before adding that “I never touched my children or grandchildren.”
According to La Provence, a local newspaper with journalists in the court, lawyers for Giselle and her children asked Dominique Pelicot about all the times he had accompanied his wife to medical appointments for unexplained conditions that had resulted from the drugs and the rapes.
“I saw her suffering, but the addiction was stronger,” he responded. “I should have stopped much earlier, not even started earlier ... but I couldn’t stop.”
Under French law, the proceedings inside the courtroom cannot be filmed or photographed.
Dominique Pelicot is brought to the court through a special entrance inaccessible to the media. He and some other defendants are being held in custody during the trial. Defendants who are not in custody come to the trial wearing surgical masks or hoods to avoid having their faces filmed or photographed.
However, Gisele Pelicot, 71, waived her right to anonymity, insisting on a public trial to expose her ex-husband and the other men accused of raping her, and to shed light on sexual violence, her lawyers have said.
She was in the courtroom during her ex-husband’s appearance on Tuesday and also spoke, according to French media. “It is difficult to hear from the mouth of Mr Pelicot what he has just said,” she said. “For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined was capable of these acts of rape.”
To many, she has become a symbol of the struggle against sexual violence in France. On Saturday, hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered in cities across the country in a show of support for her.
Bernadette Tessonière, a 69-year-old retiree who lives half an hour from Avignon, arrived outside the courthouse at 7.15am to secure a seat in the courthouse.
People gather to support Gisele Pelicot in Paris on Saturday. She was allegedly drugged by her ex-husband and raped while unconscious by dozens of men invited by him.Credit: AP
“How is it possible that in 50 years of communal life, one can live next to someone who hides his life so well? This is scary,” she said.
“I don’t have much hope that what he did can be explained, but he is at least going to give some elements.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Reuters, AP