France rape trial: Experts describe rapist recruiter as self-centred manipulator

AVIGNON – Experts said on Sept 9 a Frenchman on trial for recruiting dozens of strangers

to rape his drugged wife without her knowledge

was a “self-centred” manipulator with a split personality.

A court in the southern town of Avignon is trying Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree, for repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a decade.

Fifty other men, aged between 26 and 74, are also on trial for alleged involvement, in a case that has horrified France.

The court proceedings – which began last week and are running until December – are open to the public at the request of Dominique Pelicot’s former wife and victim.

Ms Gisele Pelicot, 71, made the request to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

As the trial entered its second week, experts sought to illuminate the inner workings of a man who, up until the discovery of the abuse in 2020, had been viewed as a caring father and grandfather.

He had meticulously documented the abuse between 2011 and 2020 on his computer, and was discovered only by chance when the police seized it after he was caught filming under women’s skirts in a local supermarket.

Most of the alleged rapes took place in the Pelicot home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence

‘Split in his psyche’

Psychologist Marianne Douteau described Dominique Pelicot as a “quick-tempered” man, “who inspired fear” like the father he despised.

After what she described as “mediocre” results in school, he became a worker in the nuclear sector before moving on to real estate, where he was only moderately successful.

“The sexuality of Mr Pelicot appears modelled on his character: ordinary in public but within his couple, he had a tenacious sexuality, as seen in the swinging that his wife refused and which he compensated for by using porn chat websites,” she said.

Psychologist Annabelle Montagne described him as being a “self-centred” man who tended to “consider other people as objects to manipulate, to lie to”.

He objectified his own wife by knocking her out with drugs, she said, saying raping her in such a state of unconsciousness could “be linked to fantasies of necrophilia”.

“Voyeurism was part of his psychosexual dynamic,” she added.

Ms Montagne said a rape Pelicot claimed he suffered aged nine at the hands of a male nurse could have caused “a split in his psyche”.

Another expert had on Sept 6 described him as having a “split” personality, drawing a comparison with the eponymous character in Gothic horror classic Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr Hyde.

Pelicot’s sons David and Florian, his son-in-law Pierre P. and his brother Joel Pelicot, a retired doctor, were also to give testimony on Sept 9.

Dominique Pelicot, who was excused from the courtroom on Sept 9 over reported abdominal pain, is scheduled to speak in the afternoon on Sept 10.

Families harassed

Eighteen of the 51 accused are in custody, including Dominique Pelicot, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men.

The last one, still at large, will be judged in absentia.

Most face up to 20 years in jail for aggravated rape.

Lawyers of the co-defendants on Sept 9 said they would be filing legal complaints over people sharing the personal details of their clients online, leading to threats against them and their families.

“Personal information of the accused – their identity, surname, name, profession and sometimes even pictures taken inside the courtroom – have been shared on social media, in defiance of the basic rules of our law,” said lawyer Isabelle Crepin-Dehaene, representing all their attorneys.

“Children of defendants have been singled out at school. Wives and family members have been insulted. Defendants have received malicious phone calls, with attempts to break into their home,” she added.

A lawyer for the Pelicot family had called on Sept 6 for “the utmost restraint on social media”, saying the case was a “tragedy for all families” involved. AFP