Pélicot organised rape of spouse ‘as a result of he was bored in retirement’

The ‘Monster of Avignon’ clashed with his daughter in court today as he made the explosive confession before judges that he had solicited dozens of men to rape his drugged wife at their family home in a campaign of abuse spanning years.

Dominique Pélicot appeared in court in Avignon, southeast France on Tuesday to give his much-awaited testimony following a period of absence from the trial due to sickness.

The 71-year-old told judges he and some 51 men alleged to have taken part in the rape of Gisèle Pélicot were culpable, before trying to explain his actions with accounts of abuse in his childhood.

In a shocking admission, Mr Pélicot claimed he had begun inviting strangers, some with venereal diseases, to their home in Mazan to assault his wife as she slept because he was ‘utterly idle’ in retirement.

After expressing remorse for the crimes, he insisted he had never drugged or assaulted his only daughter, Caroline Darian – against her claims of being plied with substances and subjected to naked photoshoots. 

Facing her father in court on Tuesday, Ms Darian insisted that she was also drugged by him, before he took nude photos of her.

In a dramatic flurry he replied: ‘Caroline, I never drugged you or raped you. It’s not possible to say that. I never did that.’

As he spoke Caroline Darian looked at him and shook her head.

Last week she had given evidence against her father in which she said she believed she had been ‘drugged and photographed naked’. 

Ms Darian is convinced that – like her mother – she was routinely drugged so that her father could attack her. 

The court heard how photos of her were found in a file entitled ‘Around my daughter, naked’, and apparently showed Ms Darian, now 46, asleep. 

Ms Darian, who uses a pen name, has written a book called ‘And I Stopped Calling You Daddy’.

In it, she insists that her father drugged her, and has launched a pressure group called ‘Don’t Send Me To Sleep,’ to raise awareness about ‘chemical submission.’

Despite denying the central claims in the book, Mr Pélicot said: ‘She was right to write this book even if I haven’t read it.’

Referring to Caroline and her two sons, Mr Pélicot said: ‘Today I still love them as much as ever. Caroline was right to create her pressure group.’

When Mr Pélicot was first arrested in September 2020, his devices were searched, and there were hundreds of pornographic videos and photos of women.

It was while in custody that Mr Pélicot reported a hard drive, hidden under a printer, which contained a file called ‘Abuses’.

Police uncovered sickening pictures of Ms Darian, and Mr Pélicot’s two daughters-in-law, in a haul some 200,000 images and videos.

Mr Pélicot used his testimony on Tuesday to take responsibility for the abuse and implicate other men alleged to have assaulted his wife under invitation. 

‘I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom,’ he admitted earlier in the trial today. ‘I recognise the facts in their totality.’

He denied he was doing anything heroic in trying to bring the other alleged rapists to justice.

‘I don’t consider myself a superhero,’ he said. ’I’m not the one pursuing these men in court. I’m just telling the truth.’

Asked by a defence lawyer how it felt to have ‘picked up dozens of strangers’, Pélicot said: ‘I didn’t pick anyone up, they came and got me themselves.

‘They asked me and I said yes. They agreed and came to my home. I didn’t handcuff anyone to my home.’

He said there was a tripod and camera in the bedroom, ‘for all to see’.

‘I trusted these men who knew why they were coming,’ said Pélicot.

He also claimed he ‘considered suicide’ at one point, after learning that his wife was having an alleged affair.

‘I got into the car, and drove intending to crash into a row of trees’ but ‘lacked the courage to go through with it,’ said Pélicot, adding: ‘Maybe I should have done.’

During his appearance today, Mr Pélicot tried to explain how the conditions of his upbringing had resulted in him ‘becoming a pervert’.

He spoke of the trauma endured when his parents took a young girl in the family, and witnessing his father’s inappropriate behavior toward her.

‘My father used to do the same thing with the little girl,’ he said. ‘After my father’s death, my brother said that men used to come to our house.’

At 14, he said, he asked his mother if he could leave the house, but ‘she didn’t let me.’

‘I don’t really want to talk about this, I am just ashamed of my father. In the end, I didn’t do any better,’ he said.

‘I still have the smell of semen in my nose,’ he told the court. 

‘But I still had a normal life. A wife, three wonderful children, several grandchildren. And I never touched any of them.’ 

Asked about his feelings toward his wife, Mr Pélicot said she did not deserve what he did.

‘From my youth, I remember only shocks and traumas, forgotten partly thanks to her. She did not deserve this, I acknowledge it,’ he said in tears.

Gisèle Pélicot, standing across the room, faced her former husband across a group of dozens of defendants sitting in between them, and put her sunglasses back on as he spoke.

Later, Dominique Pélicot said, ‘I was crazy about her. She replaced everything. I ruined everything.’

Mr Pélicot’s candid testimony had been delayed until Tuesday after a bout of illness brought on by a kidney stone and urinary infection.

He appeared in court in a wheelchair to finally confront his actions, and accused the dozens of men alleged to have assaulted his wife with him of complicity.

‘Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,’ Mr Pélicot told the court. ‘They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.’

Defendants looked visibly angry as Mr Pélicot attributed blame. 

Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.

Of the 83 men involved in the campaign of abuse, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.

One, still at large, will be judged in absentia. 

Mr Pélicot’s testimony is the most important moment so far in a trial that has shocked and gripped the country, and raised new awareness about sexual violence.

Many also hope his testimony will shed some light on how the harrowing events came to pass.

Shuffling into court today, he finally told judges: ‘Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist.’

While he previously confessed to investigators, the court testimony will be crucial for the panel of judges to decide on the fate of some 50 other men standing trial alongside him. 

Many deny having raped Gisèle Pélicot, saying they were manipulated by her then-husband or claiming they believed she was consenting.

Mr Pélicot has been on remand since 2020, when he was first arrested on suspicion of gassing and then raping Ms Pélicot, while inviting men he contacted online to do the same.

Discussing his assessment by psychiatrists, Mr Pélicot maintained that he ‘was not born perverted’. 

He had previously claimed that he was sexually abused as nine year old in hospital and told the court: ‘It was in the dark, I had a bandage and a headache. A guy came and said to me: ‘My name is Basile, do you want some candy?’

‘There were caresses, I felt a moustache, a great deal of pain, I didn’t understand what was happening to me.’ 

‘I only remember shocks and traumas from my youth. She did not deserve this. I admit it,’ he said of his former wife.

‘I destroyed everything and lost her,’ he said, weeping.

‘Even if it is paradoxical, I have never considered my wife as an object. As for pedophilia, I have never wanted that.’

Mr Pélicot faced his wife in court on Tuesday, telling how his life only began to turn around when he met her as a teenager.

‘I was very happy with her,’ said Mr Pélicot. ‘She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious.

‘We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched.’

Under further questioning Mr Pélicot also denied he was bisexual after being asked about a video said to show him receiving oral sex from another man.

He stormed: ‘I am heterosexual and nothing else.’