Two defendants in a mass rape trial that has shocked France on Wednesday reluctantly admitted they had raped a man’s heavily sedated wife as they had not sought her consent.

The main defendant in the case, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot, has confessed to administering sedatives to his wife to rape her and inviting strangers to join in the sexual abuse from 2011 to 2020.

Another 49 men have also been charged with rape or attempted rape of his wife Gisele Pelicot.

The hearings began in early September in the southern city of Avignon.

Gisele Pelicot, who is also 71 and has since divorced her husband, requested the case be heard in public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

In court on Wednesday, the latest of the defendants, 43-year-old Husamettin D., was at first not prepared to accept the charges against him.

He recounted how Dominique Pelicot had invited him over after they met online in June 2019.

Husamettin D. said Dominique Pelicot told him his wife was next to him as they communicated via chat.

He added that he had received a message that read: “I am indeed his wife, and I agree to welcome you.”

Husamettin D. headed over to their home in the small town of Mazan that same evening, where he was led into the main bedroom.

“I started foreplay, I saw she didn’t react. I said, ‘She’s dead, your wife.’ (Dominique Pelicot) said, ‘No, you’re imagining it.’ He penetrated her and she lifted up her head a little,” Husamettin D. said.

The defendant added that they continued for at least half an hour, until he clearly heard Gisele Pelicot snoring. He then decided to leave, he said.

But he added: “I’m not a rapist, that’s too much for me to bear. It’s her husband. I never thought that guy could do that to his own wife.”

Reminded of the definition of rape by one of the judges, an act committed “through violence, constraint, threat or surprise”, Husamettin D. however conceded.

“Now I admit it was rape,” he said.

Mathieu D., 53, accepted the charges against him.

He said that Dominique Pelicot had told him his wife “would have been put to sleep by him administering her drugs” so that the couple could “later watch the videos together”.

He said he did not have the impression he was committing rape at the time, but later “realised” after being arrested that Gisele Pelicot had not given her consent.

Dominique Pelicot meticulously documented the abuse, with his pictures and videos later allowing investigators to identify dozens of suspects.

Police discovered he had been abusing his wife for almost a decade after he was detained in 2020 for filming up women’s skirts, or “upskirting”, in a local supermarket.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Avignon, France:

A Frenchman being tried for recruiting strangers to rape his drugged wife will be back in court to testify on Wednesday after being admitted to hospital, the presiding judge at his trial said.

The hospital admission on Tuesday of Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree accused of repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to abuse his heavily sedated wife, had sparked speculation that the trial may be adjourned, but the presiding judge said the trial could now continue as planned.

The judge, Roger Arata, said he had been handed a medical certificate saying that Pelicot was fit to resume his ordinary daily activities and his state allowed the transfer from his prison cell to the courtroom.

Pelicot has been on trial since last week, as are 50 other men, aged between 26 and 74, for alleged involvement, in a case that has horrified France.

The main defendant, who has admitted to the charges against him, had been scheduled to be questioned on Tuesday afternoon, but on Monday appeared frail, leaning on a cane and the glass side of the dock, and was excused from court over what his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said was abdominal pain.

Zavarro said that her client was in no way “evading” his trial.

“He has always said he would be present and testify. It’s essential,” she added.

Presiding judge Arata ordered that the accused be examined, saying he could request a suspension of the trial “until his state of health improves”.

‘Nothing will change’

But based on the doctor’s note, Arata said on Tuesday that now “nothing will change” for Wednesday’s agenda, and Pelicot would be questioned “during the breaks” scheduled in the original programme.

Experts on Monday had described Pelicot as a self-centred manipulator with no empathy and a split personality.

His ex-wife and victim Gisele Pelicot, 71, says she was troubled by strange memory lapses for years until police uncovered the abuse by chance after he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a local supermarket.

The trial is open to the public at her request to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual assault.

The family’s attorney Stephane Babonneau earlier on Tuesday said it was “absolutely necessary that Mr Pelicot be treated medically and be able to attend the debates”.

Gisele “Pelicot and her children do not wish to testify without him being present,” he added.

Most of the alleged rapes took place in the Pelicot home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.

Pelicot kept meticulous records of the abuse of his wife, discovered after police seized his computer and other equipment.

‘Deep unconscious state’

An investigator, who waded through images and footage found on the main defendant’s computer, told the court on Tuesday that all the co-accused must have known that Gisele Pelicot was unconscious.

“Beyond the images, you need to listen to the sound. You immediately notice that she’s sleeping,” Stephan Gal said.

“Some even came back on several occasions, and none could have been unaware that she was in a deep unconscious state.”

Eighteen of the 51 accused, including Pelicot, are in custody, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men.

The last one, still at large, is being judged in absentia.

The investigator recounted the case of one of the co-defendants, Mathieu D., accused of sexually abusing Gisele Pelicot, like many others without a condom.

Police identified him thanks to a distinctive tattoo, Gal said.

They found his contact in the main defendant’s telephone, and his phone data showed he was in Mazan on the same day.

When interrogated, Mathieu D. “said he knew Dominique Pelicot was going to put his wife to sleep, but he thought it was part of a ‘sexual game’. He said it was presented as a scenario and he had naively, blindly gone for it,” Gal said.

The main defendant’s daughter Caroline Darian, 45, has said her life was “literally turned upside down” when she heard of the abuse.

Photomontages of her naked had also been found on her father’s computer.

The couple’s two sons are still due to speak.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)