Woman ‘raped by dozens after husband drugged her’ seems at his trial
- Gisele P opted for a public trial and waived her right to anonymity, lawyers said
- Police say she suffered 92 rapes by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified
- Those identified will also go on trial alongside the main suspect, Dominique P
A French woman whose husband is on trial for drugging her and allowing dozens of strangers to rape her while unconscious appeared in court for the first time after waiving her right to anonymity.
Gisele P., 72, was seen standing in the courtroom supported by her three children to witness the opening day of the trial of Dominique P., 71, which began this morning in Avignon.
He is accused of orchestrating a sick rape ring, using an online forum to invite a horde of men to his home in Mazan near Avignon before filming them assaulting his wife over nine years between 2011 and 2020.
Police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom were identified and are being tried alongside the main suspect, a former employee at France‘s power utility company EDF.
Presiding judge Roger Arata announced that all the hearings would be public, granting Gisele her wish for ‘complete publicity until the end’ of the court case, according to her lawyer, Stephane Babonneau.
Gisele could have opted for a trial behind closed doors given the nature of her husband’s alleged crimes, but ‘that’s what her attackers would have wanted’, another lawyer named Antoine Camus said.
Still, the trial will be ‘a horrible ordeal’ for Gisele.
‘For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,’ Camus said, adding that his client had ‘no recollection’ of the abuse which she only discovered in 2020.
Gisele P. – a French woman whose husband is on trial for drugging her and allowing dozens of strangers to rape her while unconscious – is seen arriving in court today
Gisele P. (left) speaks to her lawyer (right) as she sits at the back of the courtroom
Gisele P., 72, was seen standing in the courtroom supported by her three children to witness the opening day of the trial of Dominique P., 71
Dominique P. is accused of orchestrating the sick rape ring, filming strangers he met online attacking his wife while she was drugged between 2011 and 2020
A black and white facial reconstruction of a younger Dominique P is seen in this handout image
Police began to investigate the defendant Dominique P. in September 2020 when he was caught by a security guard secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
Police said they found hundreds of pictures and videos of his wife on his computer, visibly unconscious and mostly in the foetal position.
The images are alleged to show dozens of rapes in the couple’s home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people roughly 20 miles from Avignon in Provence.
Investigators also found chats on a site called coco.fr, since shut down by police, in which he recruited strangers to come to their home and have intercourse with his wife.
Dominique P. admitted to investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquilisers, especially Temesta, an anxiety-reducing drug.
The abuse started in 2011, when the couple was living near Paris, and continued after they moved to Mazan two years later.
The husband took part in the rapes, filmed them and encouraged the other men using degrading language, according to prosecutors.
No money changed hands.
The accused rapists included a forklift driver, a fire brigade officer, a company boss and a journalist.
Some were single, others married or divorced, and some were family men. Most participated just once, but some took part up to six times.
Demonstrators hold placards and smoke bombs during a protest outside the courthouse during the trial of a man accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, in Avignon, on September 2, 2024
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest outside the courthouse during the trial of a man accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years
This photograph taken on September 2, 2024 shows a road sign at the entrance of the town of Mazan, southern France. Dominique P, accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, faces a French court in Avignon
Beatrice Zavarro, lawyer for the accused Dominique P, waits at the courthouse during the trial of her client accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, in Avignon, on September 2, 2024
Their defence has been that they simply helped a libertine couple live out its fantasies, but Dominique P. told investigators that all were aware that his wife had been drugged without her knowledge.
An expert said her state ‘was closer to a coma than to sleep’.
Her husband told prosecutors that only three men left the house quickly after arriving, while all others proceeded to have intercourse with his wife.
Dominique P., who said he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine, is ready to face ‘his family and his wife’, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said.
But this trial may not be his last.
The defendant has also been charged with a 1991 murder and rape, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, to which he admitted after DNA testing.
Experts said the man does not appear to be mentally ill, but reportedly concluded that had a need to feel ‘all-powerful’ over the female body in assessments included in court documents.
The shocking trial is due to last until December 20.
