A man on trial for repeatedly drugging his wife and recruiting dozens to rape her while she was unconscious told a French court that he is a rapist — and that the other accused men are, too.
By Leo Sands
“I am a rapist, like everyone else in this room. They cannot say otherwise,” Pélicot, 71, said in a courtroom in Avignon, in southern France.
Investigators have said that Gisèle Pélicot was raped while unconscious at least 92 times by at least 72 people; they have identified and charged 51 suspects. The assaults allegedly took place between 2011 and 2020.
Dominique Pélicot, who prosecutors said recruited the men over online platforms to the couple’s homes and other locations where they would assault her, faces a litany of charges, including rape. In total, prosecutors have charged 49 men with rape, one with attempted rape and one with sexual assault. The vast majority of the defendants are charged with crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison, Le Monde reported.
Prosecutors accused Dominique Pélicot of regularly sedating his wife using crushed anti-anxiety medication, without her knowledge. Police said that he laid out strict rules for the men accused of raping his wife, instructing them not to smell of perfume or smoke so as to avoid inadvertently awaking her, a lawyer representing her, Stéphane Babonneau, previously told The Washington Post.
At least 35 of the defendants are contesting the charges, Le Monde reported. Some of the defendants have said they thought the couple were living out a sexual fantasy.
Pélicot testified that he never forced his co-defendants to do anything. “They came looking for me themselves. They asked me, I said yes. I didn’t put handcuffs on anyone to force them to come,” he said, according to local media covering the trial.
Although The Post typically does not name victims of sex crimes, in this instance, the woman asked to be identified by her married name, and her lawyer said she asked for the trial to take place in open court so the world could know what had happened to her at the hands of her now ex-husband.
According to prosecutors, the years-long alleged sexual assault left Gisèle Pélicot with physical and psychological scars that — unaware of what had happened — she struggled at the time to explain, prosecutors said.
She said she only learned of her own alleged mass rape after a separate incident in 2020, when her husband was caught filming three women under their skirts. After police searched his electronic device, they found hundreds of photos and videos showing the alleged sexual assaults against his wife.
In court earlier this month, Gisèle Pélicot told judges that the recordings amounted to “rape scenes.”
“When you see this woman, drugged, mistreated, dead on a bed — of course the body is not cold, it is warm, but I am like dead,” she said. “These men are defiling me, taking advantage of me.”
In court Tuesday, Pélicot said her former husband’s admission was hard to hear. “For 50 years, I lived with a man who I couldn’t imagine for even a single second could have committed these acts. I trusted this man completely,” she told the courtroom.
Babonneau, her lawyer, previously told The Post that Dominique Pélicot has not disputed any of the facts of the case.
He told the court that he regretted what he did. “I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable,” he said. His former wife, Pélicot added, “did not deserve this.”
Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.
