- Dominique Pelicot is facing trial in Avignon, France, for his involvement in the systematic rape of his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, whom he drugged to allow dozens of men to have sex with her.
A total of 51 defendants have been on trial since September 2 in Avignon (south-eastern France) to determine their responsibility for the alleged rape of a woman who was offered to them by her husband while drugged, not for financial gain, but apparently out of voyeurism.
The first hearing of this trial, which is expected to last four months, began in the morning at the Vaucluse Criminal Court with the defendants, who are aged between 26 and 74, and the victim, aged 71.
Dominique Pelicot’s actions
According to investigations, Dominique Pelicot repeatedly drugged his wife with anti-anxiety drugs (mainly Temesta, but also Zolpidem) between 2011 and 2020.
The aim was, through this chemical submission, to put Gisèle Pelicot into a state of unconsciousness that she herself would not even remember later, in order to propose to dozens of men that they have sexual relations with her.
Dominique Pelicot, who met his wife in 1971 and had three children with her (now aged 34 to 47), explained to investigators that he did it because he liked watching other men touch her.
The psychological examination did not reveal any pathology or mental abnormality, but did reveal a voyeuristic sexual deviation and “a perverse personality.”
What is voyeurism?
It is a paraphilia characterized by sexual arousal obtained by observing other people naked, in intimate situations or performing sexual acts without their consent.
Conditions of the victim
As for his wife, who has been diagnosed with four sexually transmitted diseases directly attributable to the rapes of which she had no recollection, she also suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder with suicidal thoughts. She has filed for divorce.
The couple had moved from the Paris region to Mazan in the Vaucluse department in 2013 after their retirement.
The discovery of abuses
The couple’s apparent normality was shattered on September 12, 2020, when the husband was arrested by security guards at a supermarket in the city of Carpentras for filming under the skirts of several women.
Police officers who went to analyse his computer equipment to investigate the incident found files containing thousands of photos and videos showing his wife unconscious and the abuse she had been subjected to.
From then on, during the investigation phase, 92 rapes were recorded and 50 men of different conditions were identified who, according to Dominique Pelicot, knew that Gisèle was under the influence of drugs when they had sexual relations with her.
Responsibility and defense of the accused
Few of the accused admitted to investigators that they knew that Gisèle was drugged and that will be one of the key issues in determining their degree of responsibility in the crime of aggravated rape, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Most claimed they thought the woman was pretending to be asleep. But according to leaks to the media, the videos leave little doubt on that point.
As for the main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, the inclusion of his DNA in the court files has served to link and incriminate him for the murder of a 23-year-old woman in Paris in December 1991 and for the attempted rape of a 19-year-old woman in May 1999 in the town of Villeparisis, some thirty kilometres from the French capital.
With information from EFE
Related news
#case #man #offered #drugged #wife #France
2024-09-04 10:27:20
