In the case involving a French woman Giselle Pélicot being raped by multiple men called by her husband over a decade, the victim’s husband Dominique Pélicot has confessed his crime before the court. This comes days after the 71-year-old former employee of France’s electric utility company EDF went on trial alongside 50 other men accused of raping his wife while she was sedated by her husband.
“I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom. I recognise the facts in their totality,” Dominique said adding that the 50 co-accused knew everything about the crime. “They all knew, they cannot say the contrary,” he said.
Notably, of the 50 accused, 14 have admitted to raping the victim, while the rest have denied.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Giselle Pélicot in reaction to her husband’s confession said: “For me, it is difficult to hear it. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined for a single second that he could do these acts. I had complete confidence in this man.”
In his confession before the court, Dominque said: “Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist, like everyone in this room. They cannot say otherwise. I am accused of many things. We are not born perverts, we become them. Even if it is paradoxical, I have never considered my wife as an object.”
Dominique went on to seek forgiveness for his crimes and attempted to garner sympathy as he said: “I am guilty of what I did. I subjected my wife, my children, my grandchildren to this. I regret what I did. I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable.”
He went on to say that he “remembered nothing but shocks and traumas” as he was raped as a nine-year-old, and then forced to witness another sex attack when he was 14.
Speaking about his relationship with his estranged wife Giselle Pélicot who is the victim of Dominique’s horrible crime, he said: “I was very happy with her,” he said. “She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious. We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched. She did not deserve this.”
As reported earlier, on the 2nd of September Giselle appeared in court in Avignon, France for the start of the trial. For the next four months during the trial, she will confront her rapists.
The accused Dominique used to recruit men online to rape his wife after drugging her with sleeping medicines and anti-anxiety medications. Dominique is facing nine accusations, including several counts of rape with aggravating circumstances, drugging a victim in order to commit rape, and disseminating pictures related to the abuse.
The abuse started in 2011, when the couple was living near Paris, and continued until they moved to Mazan two years later. The man hired strangers to sexually assault his wife through a now-defunct website called coco.fr, according to chat records found by police.
According to court documents, police have identified at least 92 sexual assaults by 72 individuals ranging in age from 26 to 74. 50 people were identified, and the majority have been charged with aggravated or attempted rape and are on trial other than Gisèle’s husband Dominique.
In September 2020, police began investigating the woman’s husband, the primary suspect, when he was discovered discreetly recording under the skirts of three ladies in a shopping mall. Upon searching his computer the police found thousands of videos and pictures of his wife. In the videos and images found on the accused’s computer, the victim was unconscious. The videoes recorded several instances of rape. The torture happened at their home in Mazan, a village near Avignon.
Last week, Dominique and Giselle’s daughter Caroline Darian told the court that her father was “one of the greatest sexual predators” of recent years.
