A 71-year-old French man admitted in court Tuesday that for nearly a decade he repeatedly drugged his ex-wife and invited dozens of men to rape her as she lay unconscious in their bed.
In a trial that shocked France and raised new awareness about sexual abuse, Dominique Pélicot told the court that he assaulted his then ex-wife, Gisele Pélicot, and that 50 people who were with him in the courtroom understood exactly what they were doing. . .
“Today I believe that I am the aggressor along with the other men here,” said Dominique Pellicote. “They knew everything. They cannot say otherwise.”
Pelicott’s testimony was the most important moment of a trial that shocked the world. Although she previously confessed to investigators, her testimony at the trial will be crucial to the jury’s decision on the fate of her co-defendants, many of whom deny raping Gisele Pelicott and say her then-husband manipulated them, or believe he went along with it.
Many supporters of the case also hope that her testimony can explain why Dominique Pellicote subjected his 50-year-old wife and mother of three to such unjustified abuse.
Gisele Pélicot, who has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France, has agreed not to reveal her name in the case, in order to appear publicly and openly before the media. She is expected to speak in court after her ex-husband’s testimony.
Dominique Pellicote, who was confined to a wheelchair, admitted in court that the charges against him were true after several days of delay because of what his defense attorneys said were kidney stones and a urinary tract infection. With his ex-wife watching from a packed gallery, he testified for an hour, his voice shaking and at times barely audible as he tried to explain the childhood injuries that he said shaped him and made him the person he is.
“You’re not born a pervert, you become a whore,” Pellicote told the jury after recounting how she was sexually abused by a nurse at a hospital at the age of 9, then forced to confess to the abuse and participate in a gang rape. . 14.
When he was 14, he asked his mother if he could move there, but she wouldn’t let him, Pelicot said.
“I don’t really want to talk about it, I’m just ashamed of my father. In the end I didn’t do any better,” he said.
When asked about his feelings for his ex-wife, Pelicote said she did not deserve what she did.
“Since I was little, I only remember the shocks and the wounds, which, thanks to him, I have partly forgotten,” she says through tears.
At that moment, Gisele Pélicote, standing in front of her ex-husband in the room and with a dozen of his partners in between, put on her sunglasses.
Dominique Pellicote later said: “I was crazy about her. He changed everything. I ruined everything.”
According to court documents, a security guard caught Pelicot in 2020 secretly filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket. During a search of his home and electronic devices, police found thousands of photographs and videos of men having sex with Gisele Pellicote while she was unconscious in bed.
With the records, the police were able to locate most of the 72 suspects they were looking for.
When the Pélicots retired, they moved from the Paris area to a house in Mazan, a small town in the Provence region.
When police officers called her in for questioning in late 2020, she initially told them her husband was a “great guy,” according to legal documents. They then showed her some photographs. She left and later divorced her husband.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. His partners range in age from 26 to 74.
Under French law, courtroom proceedings cannot be filmed or photographed. Dominique Pélicote arrived at the courthouse through a special entrance closed to the media because he and some of the other defendants are in custody during the proceedings. Defendants who are not in custody come to the courthouse wearing masks or surgical caps to prevent their faces from being filmed or photographed.
Among those hoping to find a spot to watch Tuesday’s trial was Bernadette Tessonnier, a 69-year-old retiree who lives half an hour from Avignon, where the trial is taking place. She arrived at the courthouse at 7:15 a.m. to ensure she would get in.
“How is it possible that for 50 years of public life you live next to someone who hides his life so well? It’s scary,” she said while waiting in line. “I don’t have much hope that his work can be explained, but at least it provides some elements.”
Jeantet writes for the Associated Press.
