Man who copied French rapist says he deserves to be punished
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Ms Gisele Pelicot, now 71 and divorced from her husband, has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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AVIGNON – A man who learned to drug and rape his own wife from Frenchman Dominique Pelicot, who is now on trial for recruiting scores of strangers to sexually assault his partner, said on Sept 18 that he deserved to be harshly punished.
“I’m in jail and I deserve it,” 63-year-old Jean-Pierre Marechal, a co-defendant in the mass rape trial that has shocked France,
“What I did is appalling. I’m a criminal and a rapist,” said the tall man with a buzz cut, who was supplied with tranquillisers by Pelicot, 71.
Pelicot, the main defendant, has admitted to slipping his then wife Gisele sedatives to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her for nearly a decade.
Marechal is the only one not accused of abusing Ms Gisele Pelicot. Forty-nine other co-defendants are charged with taking part in the abuse, which lasted from 2011 to 2020.
Instead, he has been charged with raping his own wife and letting her be raped by Pelicot, whom he met online.
“What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment,” Marechal told the court.
‘I love my wife’
Marechal told the court that he had been abused by his father as a child.
“My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence,” he said. “We experienced terrible things from my father – sexual abuse.”
He described being forced to perform oral sex on his father so that he and his sister could go fishing with him.
He said when his sister cried, he agreed to do it. “I was used to it,” he said.
“My mother tried to protect us, but she drank,” he added.
Marechal said he had a “happy life” with his wife after meeting her at 33. She, too, had told the court last week it was a happy marriage.
“I love my wife,” he stated.
Marechal is accused of raping or attempting to rape his wife 12 times, with Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of them.
He lived some 50km away from the Pelicots, where the main defendant is accused of repeatedly abusing his own wife in the southern town of Mazan.
Ms Gisele Pelicot, now 71 and divorced from her husband, has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse. AFP
