A 71-year-old French man accused of drugging his spouse in order that he and dozens of strangers might sexually assault her at her residence has advised a courtroom that he admitted the costs and was a rapist.
“I am a rapist, like the others in this room,” Dominique Pélicot mentioned, quietly and calmly, as he regarded throughout the courtroom on the 50 different males who’re additionally on trial accused of raping his spouse in her personal mattress whereas she was drugged and in a state akin to a “deep coma”.
Pélicot, a retired property agent, is accused of drugging Gisèle Pélicot with sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety treatment, then recruiting dozens of males on-line to allegedly rape her within the couple’s residence in a southern French village between 2011 and 2020.
Giving proof for the primary time after a number of days of unwell well being, Pélicot mentioned of the opposite accused males, aged between 26 and 74: “They all knew.” He mentioned they had been conscious they had been being invited to rape his spouse.
“I am guilty of what I did,” he mentioned. “I say to my wife, my children, my grandchildren … I regret what I’ve done and I ask for forgiveness, even if it’s unforgivable.” Of his spouse, to whom he was married for 50 years however who has now divorced him, he mentioned: “She did not deserve this.”
He additionally apologised to the spouse of one other man who he allegedly raped at her residence when she was drugged.
Wearing a gray cardigan over a blue T-shirt, with white hair and a closely lined face, Pélicot was introduced in from his jail cell and sat confidently within the safe glass field for interrogation, staring straight on the 5 judges within the Avignon legal courtroom. At instances he sighed with irritation when requested if the boys who allegedly raped his spouse had recognized she couldn’t have consented. Typically he cried when speaking of alleged sexual abuse in his personal childhood.
The courtroom heard how Pélicot would inform males clearly in non-public messages on-line: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife asleep.” He wrote to at least one man on-line: “You’re like me, you like rape mode.”
The choose advised the courtroom that Pélicot had advised investigators that, when drugged, his spouse could be unconscious for round seven hours and he would inform the boys who he had allegedly invited to the home: “Help yourself.” He had strict guidelines – the boys undressed within the kitchen, needed to not smoke or put on fragrance and needed to heat their palms first to keep away from waking her.
Pélicot mentioned the boys had recognized they had been being filmed “because there was a tripod and camera. Everyone could see it when they came in to the room.”
As he spoke, a few of the accused males sniggered or shook their heads.
Requested if his spouse might have consented, Pélicot mentioned: “Not at all, it was always against her knowledge.” He mentioned he drugged his spouse two to 3 instances per week, raping her every time himself. This was extra usually than the photographs on his exhausting drive indicated, the judges remarked.
The courtroom heard how skilled psychiatric studies had discovered Pélicot to be a manipulator with low empathy and low means for introspection or taking duty. He lacked the flexibility to take different individuals’s emotions into consideration. He was described as a person who had only a few associates and favored to indicate off his convertible automotive.
He advised the courtroom that the assaults of his spouse had been an habit. He mentioned: “I had an addiction; I had needs. I put everything on the line without thinking. I was selfish and I’m ashamed.”
Pélicot agreed with a choose that the abuse of his spouse had been “an integral part of his life”. He repeatedly advised the courtroom: “You aren’t born a pervert, you become one.”
He mentioned his actions had been linked to abuse he suffered as a baby. The lead choose advised the courtroom of a violent father and “family sexual abuse and family secrets”. Pélicot mentioned he was raped aged 9 in hospital by a nurse when he was being handled for a head harm. He mentioned that aged 14, as an apprentice on a constructing website, he witnessed – and was pressured to participate in – a group-rape of a girl who he described as disabled. “It was too heavy to bear,” he advised the courtroom.
The courtroom heard that Gisèle Pélicot was not conscious of the abuse that occurred when she was unconscious, however had suffered inexplicable reminiscence loss and gynaecological issues. Dominique Pélicot, who frequently crushed treatment into her meals, had sought to “reassure her” when she feared an onset of Alzheimer’s, taking her for medical assessments, it heard. She was knowledgeable by police of the alleged rapes after her husband was arrested for allegedly filming up ladies’s skirts in a grocery store in 2020 and investigators discovered pictures of the alleged abuse of his spouse on his laptop exhausting drive.
Pélicot was requested concerning the grave hazard he had put his spouse in, together with the actual fact she was allegedly raped six instances at his instigation by a person who had HIV and didn’t use safety. He mentioned: “For the HIV, it was someone who gave me a false test … I should have reacted to all that. I wasn’t conscious of putting her in danger.”
However he mentioned he himself had an HIV take a look at in 2019 as he was involved for his personal well being. He didn’t make the boys who got here to the home put on condoms.
The courtroom heard that Gisèle Pélicot now lives with lifelong penalties of the sexually transmitted illnesses she contracted in the course of the alleged assaults. Requested if he hated his spouse, Pélicot mentioned: “Not at all. What I did was abominable but I never had hatred towards her.” Requested if he beloved his spouse, he mentioned: “I was crazy about her … I loved her enormously. I ruined everything”.
Pélicot was requested about photographs discovered on his exhausting drive of his grownup daughter asleep in her underwear. He repeatedly mentioned: “I never touched my daughter,” and denied taking photographs of her. “You’re lying,” his daughter shouted in courtroom. Final week, she advised the courtroom she believed her father had drugged her.
The courtroom heard that Pélicot had allegedly filmed the wives of his two sons by putting a hidden digicam in bogs they used.
Gisèle Pélicot advised the courtroom: “For me, it’s difficult to listen to Mr Pélicot because in 50 years, I never imagined for a second that he could rape. It’s difficult for me to hear this today … the acts of violence and barbarity. I didn’t think for a second he could do it. I had full trust in that man.”
Dominique Pélicot’s testimony might be decisive for the 50 different males who’re on trial. Among the accused have admitted he advised them he was drugging his then spouse, whereas others declare they believed they had been taking part in a pair’s organised situation.
The case has prompted outrage throughout France. Gisèle Pélicot requested that the trial be open to the general public to boost consciousness about using medicine to commit sexual abuse. Girls applauded her as she exited the Avignon courtroom on Tuesday and she or he put her palms collectively in thanks for his or her help.
