One of the worst sexual predators in French history on Tuesday admitted drugging his wife and allowing multiple strangers to attack her, saying: ‘I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom’.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, spoke for the first time about his crimes on Tuesday morning, saying: “I recognise the facts in their totality”.
The white-haired grandfather was appearing in the dock at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, following a week of ill health.
He is on trial alongside 50 other men, all of them accused of the “aggravated rape” of his wife Gisele Pelicot, also 71. She looked on impassively on Tuesday as Pelicot shuffled into court using a cane to support himself.
Wearing a thick grey shirt, Pelicot owned up to crimes that had seen his own daughter describe him as “one of the greatest sexual predators” of recent years.
“Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist, like everyone in this room. They cannot say otherwise.”
Pelicot also focused on alleged crimes he had allegedly 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,” said Pelicot.
But all this changed, said Pelicot, when he met his wife as a teenager.
“I was very happy with her,” said Pelicot. “She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious.
“We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched.”
He said Gisele Pelicot – from whom he has now divorced – “did not deserve this”.
At the end of the 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 gassing and then raping Ms Pelicot, while inviting men he contacted on line to do the same.
Pelicot is facing a jail sentence of up to 20 years, along with all the other defendants.
Last week, psychologists described Pelicot 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.
Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, 46, last week told the court that he was “one of the greatest sexual predators” of recent years.
She said he secretly photographed her in the nude, along with her two sister-in-laws.
This was at the same family home in Mazan, some 20 miles from Avignon, which Pelicot had invited the alleged rapists.
Pelicot was first arrested in September 2020 for 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.
It was while in custody that Pelicot reported a hard drive, hidden under a printer, which contained a file called “Abuses”.
It classified the nickname and telephone numbers of attackers, together with some 3,800 photos and videos of Gisele 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 sex ring involved advertising on a site for “partners” on an online forum called “Without Her Knowing” on the coco.fr site.
Of the 83 men involved, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.
Pelicot is said to have sedated his wife by putting Temesta – a powerful anxiolytic – into her evening dinner.
Alleged rapists involved in the case include civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a municipal councillor, and truck drivers.
In a separate case, Pelicot has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991.
He has admitted one attempted rape in 1999, after DNA testing proved a case against him.
The Avignon aggravated rape case is due to last until December 21.
Fourteen of the other defendants have also admitted rape, while the rest deny any wrongdoing.
As the cross-examination continued, a tearful Pelicot insisted he “still loves” his ex-wife.
“I loved her well for 40 years and loved her badly for 10 years,” said Pelicot. “I ruined everything, I lost everything. I should never have done that.”
Pelicot claimed he also “still loves” his three adult children, saying: “They are in my heart.”
He even praised his daughter, Caroline Darian, for founding a protest group against so-called “chemical submission” – the drugging of rape victims.
Pelicot also admitted that videoing the crimes against his wife was “a part of the pleasure”, but he was glad that most of the men who had sex with his wife had been identified.
“There is also a measure of reassurance, since today, thanks to [the videos], we can find all those who participated in what went on,” he said.
Other defendants in court were visibly angry as Pelicot criminalised them all. “He manipulated us,” one shouted.
Discussing his “Jekyll and Hyde” assessment by psychiatrists, Pelicot said he “was not born perverted”.
But he added: “We can’t say that my life hasn’t been influenced by that. Side A and side B are the same man, but with addictions.”
Asked when he was first perverted, Pelicot replied: “We try to deal with what we have experienced.
“We become perverted when we meet someone who gives us the possibility. Then we become perverted, yes.”
Pelicot said his “selfish moment” came when he met a nurse online who instructed him in how to administer Temesta to his wife.
“He gave me the dosage,” said Pelicot. “I saw photos of his wife. That was the moment it started. I think about it.”
