WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter Caroline Darian labelled her dad Dominque a “dangeorus man” who knew “perfectly well what he did” and believes he should never be let out of jail
Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter says her dad should ‘die in prison’
Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter wants her twisted rapist dad who spent years drugging her mum to “die in prison” following his conviction.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was jailed to 20 years in jail following a shocking three-and-a-half month trial in December after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down sentences ranging from three to 15 years’ imprisonment for the 50 men found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot over nearly a decade.
The now ex-husband laced his wife’s food and drink with tranquilizers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
And now his daughter Caroline Darian has spoken out about the first time she found out about the horrific crimes, which was on a Monday evening in November 2020.
“She announced to me that she discovered that morning that [my father] Dominique had been drugging her for about 10 years so that different men could rape her,” Darian said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme’s Emma Barnett. “At that moment, I lost what was a normal life.” She believes the rapist “should die in prison”.
Darian maintains her father also abused and raped her too, something which he has always denied. “I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse. But I don’t have any evidence,” she said. Despite the evidence which convicted Dominque, there is no proof of what Pelicot did to her. “And that’s the case for how many victims?
“They are not believed because there’s no evidence. They’re not listened to, not supported,” she said.
Darian said she lives with “a terrible burden” of her dad’s horrific crimes. “When I look back I don’t really remember the father that I thought he was. I look straight to the criminal, the sexual criminal he is,” she says.
“But I have his DNA and the main reason why I am so engaged for invisible victims is also for me a way to put a real distance with this guy. I am totally different from Dominique.”
Darian labelled her dad a “dangeorus man” but does not know if he is a “monster,” as some have called him. “He knew perfectly well what he did, and he’s not sick,” she says. “He is a dangerous man. There is no way he can get out. No way.”
The court found Dominique Pelicot guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. He won’t be eligible to request early release until he’s served at least two-thirds of the sentence.