Rape suspect ‘had intercourse with Gisele Pelicot regardless of listening to her loud night breathing’

The youngest man accused of raping a French woman who had been drugged by her husband said in court today that he found it ‘unusual’ that she was ‘snoring’ when he had sex with her.

Joan Kawai, 26, was arrested at the barracks where he was serving in the French army after his details were found on devices police uncovered at the home of Dominique Pelicot. 

The 71-year-old, dubbed the Monster of Avignon, is accused of drugging his unsuspecting wife Gisele, also 71, for almost ten years so dozens of men could rape and abuse her.

Kawai, one of the 50 men on trial alongside the retired electrician, was driven to the house in Mazan in November 2019 after being picked up by Mr Pelicot, as he didn’t drive.

The soldier told the court that he watched Mr Pelicot have sex with his sleeping wife, and that once he was finished, he told him to ‘have a go’. Kawai said he noticed that she ‘appeared to be snoring’. 

Kawai told the court how he had met Pelicot through the now closed swinging website Coco.fr and that he had sent the pensioner pictures of his penis.

‘He said he was looking for someone who could pleasure his wife,’ Kawai said.

‘When we spoke, I got the impression she had agreed as she was with him, he said it wouldn’t be her first time.

‘When I arrived, I was told to wash my hands, and I undressed in the corridor and we had a glass of whisky, I was told to warm my hands on the radiator.

‘We went into the bedroom Mrs Pelicot ws on the bed, she was naked from the waist down, he had intercourse first then he told me to, and gave me instructions.

‘What was not normal was that she was snoring.’

During cross examination by one of Mrs Pelicot’s lawyers Stephane Babonneau, Kawai was reminded of his oath as a soldier and that he had ‘signed up to defend and protect others’.

He was asked: ‘So, at what point do you ask Dominique Pelicot why his wife is sleeping like that?’

Kawai replied: ‘As the snoring increased and got louder. He told me she was taking sleeping pills and I found that creepy.

‘I did ask him if that was normal the second time I went back but he didn’t answer.

‘That worried me, I should have reported that there were shady goings on in the house.’

Kawai was asked by judge Roger Arata whether he had ‘considered consent’.

He replied: ‘I didn’t ask myself that question,’ to which the judge replied: ‘That answers my question.’ 

Kawai said he ‘recognised the facts’ of what happened between him and Mrs Pelicot but insisted he ‘didn’t rape’ her. 

Returning to the subject of consent, the judge asked him:’ Do you think a husband can consent on behalf of his wife ?’ Kawai replied:’ I think not.’

The judge then read testimony describing the video showing Kawai and Mrs Pelicot in terms to graphic to report, and she appeared to be upset as she listened and leaned on her son David for support.

At one point even the judge appeared to have difficulty reading the narrative testimony and his voice cracked several times.

The court heard Kawai had gone to the house twice and that a third visit had been cancelled.

Kawai added: ‘It didn’t feel right, I got no pleasure, he told me had given his wife sleeping pills.’

The 26-year-old was born in Guyana but moved to the Vaucluse region of France as a teenager and was only 23 when he was arrested.

He first went to the house in November 2019, the day his daughter was born. 

He then went back another time, and admits to having set off for a third visit, which Dominique Pelicot cancelled at the last minute.

In front of the investigators, he first stated that he had not asked himself the question of whether Mrs Pelicot had consented.

Then, confronted with the photos, he admitted that she was unconscious.

The trial continues.