A French husband accused of drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over a decade has declared in court: “I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom.”
Dominique Pelicot, 71, spoke for the first time during his trial, saying: “I recognise the facts in their totality.” He faces charges including rape and gang rape of his now ex-wife Gisele Pelicot, as well as various privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images.
He is on trial alongside 50 other men. Fourteen of the other defendants have also admitted rape, while the rest deny any wrongdoing.
“They all knew, they cannot say the contrary,” he said of the co-defendants in the trial.
The grandfather appeared in the dock at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, following a week of ill health that delayed his testimony. He appeared with a cane.
Ms Pelicot insisted on a public trial to expose him and the other men accused of raping her and to shed a light on sexual violence, her lawyers have said.
To many, she has become a symbol of the struggle against sexual violence in France. On Saturday hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered in cities across the country to demonstrate support for her.
In a dramatic scene in court on Tuesday, Ms Pelicot was given permission to react immediately to her husband’s confession, saying: “For me, it is difficult to hear it.
“For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined for a single second that he could do these acts. I had complete confidence in this man.”
Wearing a thick grey shirt, Pelicot owned up to crimes that had seen his own daughter describe him on the stand as “one of the greatest sexual predators” of recent years.
He said: “Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist, like everyone in this room. They cannot say otherwise.”
Offering further mitigation, he said: “I am accused of many things. We are not born perverts, we become them. Even if it is paradoxical, I have never considered my wife as an object.”
He added: “I am guilty of what I did. I subjected my wife, my children, my grandchildren to this. I regret what I did. I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable.” He later told the court of his former wife: “I loved her well for 40 years and loved her badly for 10 years … I ruined everything, I lost everything. I should never have done that.”
Pelicot also focused on alleged crimes he said he had suffered as a child, saying he was raped as a nine-year-old, and then forced to witness another sex attack when he was 14. “I remember nothing from my youth but shocks and traumas,” he said.
He told the court how his life changed when he met his wife as a teenager.
“I was very happy with her,” he said. “She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious. We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched.”
He said his wife “did not deserve this”.
At the end of her short statement, Ms Pelicot lowered her head, putting her sunglasses on.
Pelicot has been on remand since 2020 when he was first arrested on suspicion of drugging and then raping Ms Pelicot, while inviting men he contacted online to do the same.
Last week, psychologists described him as a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who appeared like a normal husband during the day, and then drugged his wife so strangers could rape her at night.
His daughter, Caroline Darian, 46, last week told the court that he was “one of the greatest sexual predators” of recent years.
She accused him of secretly photographing her in the nude, along with her two sisters-in-law. This was at the same family home in Mazan, some 20 miles from Avignon, to which Pelicot had invited the alleged rapists.
On the stand Pelicot claimed he also “still loves” his three adult children, saying: “They are in my heart.”
Pelicot was first arrested in September 2020 for allegedly secretly filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in Carpentras. His devices were searched, and there were hundreds of pornographic videos and photos of women, the court heard.
A hard drive, hidden under a printer, contained a file called “Abuses”, authorities have said. It classified the nickname and telephone numbers of attackers, together with some 3,800 photos and videos of Ms Pelicot being raped, between 2011 and 2020. Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.
Pelicot’s alleged sex ring involved advertising on a site for “partners” on an online forum. Of the 83 men involved, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.
In a separate case, Pelicot has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991. He has also admitted to one attempted rape in 1999 after DNA testing proved a case against him.
The Avignon aggravated rape case is due to last until 21 December.