‘I am a rapist’: Frenchman says in trial over mass rape of wife

PARIS - “I am a rapist,” said a Frenchman accused of

drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could sexually assault her

, his first testimony in a trial that has horrified France.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, used a cane on Sept 17 as he slowly entered the courtroom in the southern city of Avignon, where his now ex-wife was present for the painful testimony.

“I am a rapist, like the others in this room,” he said, referring to the 50 other defendants in the mass trial – men he allegedly recruited online to rape his then wife Gisele Pelicot.

“They all knew” that he was inviting them to rape her, he said.

But he added: “She did not deserve this.”

Pelicot is accused of administering anti-anxiety drugs to Mrs Pelicot over a period of almost a decade, from 2011 to 2020.

While she was unconscious, he would rape her, and he recruited dozens of other men he met online to do the same.

He has admitted the charges, but Sept 17 is the first time he has spoken at any length since the trial began on Sept 2.

He spoke of his “difficult” childhood, saying his parents “assaulted each other”.

He briefly mentioned what he described as two “traumatic” episodes, being the victim of a rape when he was nine years old and another on a construction site as 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,” he added.

Mrs Pelicot, who obtained a divorce from him in August, remained stoic as he spoke, then took the stand herself.

“Not a 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.”

Pelicot then asked her and others 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.”

He also presented his apologies to another woman in the case, whose husband is accused of raping her while she was heavily sedated, following the same modus operandi.

But he said he had never abused his two sons and daughter.

“I had three children, who I never touched,” he said.

The investigation revealed that Pelicot had on his computer naked pictures of his daughter and intimate photos of his two daughters-in-law, taken without their knowledge.

He was found out only in 2020 after he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket.

Police 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 of the filing. “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.

Pelicot had been excused from hearings for much of last week and did not show up on Sept 16.

Ms Beatrice Zavarro, the defendant’s lawyer, told AFP on Sept 16 that he was suffering from “a clot in the bladder” and the beginning of a kidney infection.

But a medical exam ordered by the presiding judge found that he was in a fit state to appear in court, avoiding a delay of weeks or even months to the hearings.

Adjustments would be made to the “sequencing of the hearings” and Pelicot would get “regular rest”, Ms Zavarro said, adding that the health complaints were not an attempt by her client to escape justice.

Pelicot’s testimony is expected to be decisive for the 50 other men aged 26 to 74 on trial, four of whose cases are set to be heard in the coming days.

Some of the accused have admitted that he told them he was drugging his then wife, while others claim they believed they were participating in a swinger couple’s fantasy.

Investigators listed 72 men suspected of having taken part in abusing Mrs Pelicot other than her husband, but managed to identify only 50.

All those 50 are on trial. They include a fireman, a male nurse, a prison guard and a journalist.

Seventeen are in custody, as is Pelicot, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men.

One co-defendant is being tried in absentia.

Mrs Pelicot requested that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

She has divorced her husband, and while she is keeping her married name for the trial, she intends to take up her maiden name as soon as it is over, she said.

The case has prompted outrage across France, with thousands demonstrating in cities at the weekend to demand an end to rape, and to support Mrs Pelicot.

“Shame must change sides,” said several posters, echoing Mrs Pelicot’s words that it should be rapists – not their victims – who should be ashamed.

Mrs Pelicot thanked demonstrators on Sept 16. “Thanks to you, I have the strength to see this fight through to the end”. AFP