A trial in France which has shocked the world has heard how a husband using the online monikers “pervert” and “dominator” to recruit men to travel to his house to abuse his wife.
A vile pensioner who admitted drugging his wife to let at least 72 men rape her has begged for forgiveness.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, dubbed the Monster of Avignon, publicly confessed his horrifying crimes for the first time yesterday in court. He is on trial alongside 50 other men for 92 rapes against Gisele, 72, over a 10-year period.
As Gisele, who has waived her anonymity, looked on, Pelicot said: “Along with the other men here, I am a rapist. I am guilty of what I did. I regret what I did. I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable.”
Pelicot and the other accused face up to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape. The trial, which has shocked the world, heard that Pelicot used the online monikers “pervert” and “dominator”, where he recruited men to travel to his house to abuse his wife. Police sources say at least 22 attackers remain unidentified and up to 85 may have raped Gisele.
Pelicot said he began the attacks because he was “utterly idle” and suicidal in retirement. He said there was a tripod and camera in his bedroom “for all to see” and added: “I trusted these men who knew why they were coming.”
Addressing claims he considers himself a hero for helping to convict the others, he said: “I don’t consider myself a superhero. I’m just telling the truth.” Referring to his three children, including his daughter Caroline, who has written a book about him and launched an anti-rape pressure group, Pelicot said: “Today I still love them as much as ever.”
Lawyers have likened him to a Jekyll and Hyde character. The court heard he was a “very caring and much-loved grandfather by day” but “a rapist at night”.
The ex-electrician, who used a cane in court, expressed regret for his crimes against Gisele, admitting: “I loved her well for 40 years and loved her badly for 10 years.” He suggested he had not been born a pervert but had become one after he was raped aged nine and was forced to witness a sex attack at 14.
Gisele, joined by lawyer Stephane Babonneau, knew nothing about the attacks until after Pelicot was arrested. Speaking about his admissions, she said: “It is difficult to hear it. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined for a single second he could do these acts. I had complete confidence in this man.”
Pelicot was arrested in September 2020 after he was accused of secretly filming up women’s skirts. Police searched his phone and computer at his home in Mazan, southern France. Officers uncovered messages on an online forum called Without Her Knowing, as well as anti-anxiety pills used to drug Gisele.
They found hard drives including one hidden under a printer, which contained a file titled “abuses”. It contained 200,000 images and videos, including more than 3,800 photos and videos of Gisele being raped between 2011 and 2020. There were also sickening photos of Caroline, 46, and other images of Pelicot’s two daughters-in-law.
In court yesterday, Caroline insisted she was also drugged by him before he took nude photos of her. But addressing her directly, he said: “Caroline, I never drugged you or raped you.”
Pelicot denied he is bisexual after being asked about a video said to show him involved in a sex act with a man. The accused angrily told Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon: “I am heterosexual and nothing else.” Pelicot admits filming the attacks on ex-secretary Gisele, who unknowingly contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
Of the men involved, 51 – who are aged between 26 and 73 – were identified and arrested by the police. One, still at large, will be judged in absentia. They include civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a councillor, and truck drivers. Fourteen of them have admitted rape but the rest deny wrongdoing. One of the men yesterday shouted out in court during Pelicot’s evidence, claiming: “He manipulated us.”
In a separate case, Pelicot, who also worked in property in Paris, has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in the French capital in 1991. He has also admitted one attempted rape in 1999 after DNA testing proved a case against him.
The trial in Avignon continues.