Gisele Pelicot’s sons confront their ‘satan’ father in court docket as they urge him to inform the reality about ‘drug and rape of their mom and sister’

Gisele Pelicot’s sons have confronted their ‘devil’ father in court as they urged him to to tell the truth about what he did to their mother and sister. 

Dominique Pelicot, 71, has admitted in court to inviting dozens of strangers over nearly 10 years to his house to rape his wife Gisele, now 71, after he drugged her. Pelicot and 49 other men are currently on trial in Avignon. 

The couple’s son David, 50, urged Pelicot to tell the court ‘about what you did to my sister, who suffers every day and will suffer for the rest of her life, because I don’t think you’ll ever tell the truth’.

‘And about my son too,’ David added, referring to exchanges between Dominique Pelicot and one of his grandchildren, whom he had allegedly asked to ‘play doctor’. His father insisted he had done ‘nothing’ to them.

At one point, Dominique Pelicot interrupted his son’s testimony, saying he wanted to apologise for what he had done. David Pelicot replied: ‘Never!’ 

David’s brother Florian, 38, added that his father was ‘the devil himself’.

Their sister, who uses the pen name Caroline Darian, had already testified earlier in the trial and told the court again on Monday that she believed she had also been abused by her father.

Darian, 45, said she had been ‘forgotten’ during the trial, adding she was convinced that she too had been drugged and sexually assaulted by her father, like her mother Gisele.

‘The only difference between her and me is the lack of evidence concerning me. For me, it’s an absolute tragedy’, said Darian, who in 2022 wrote a book ‘Et j’ai cesse de t’appeler papa’ (‘And I stopped calling you dad’).

‘In your disgusting files,’ she told her father, ‘you don’t look at me like a father looks at his daughter. But you will never have the courage to tell the truth.’

Pelicot photographed Caroline and his sons’ wives without their knowledge and posted their naked pictures on social networks, along with pornographic photomontages. 

Dominique Pelicot has confessed to raping his wife, but he denies that he abused his daughter.

Pelicot’s sons asked the court on Monday to punish him severely.

‘Our family has been destroyed,’ David told the court in Avignon. ‘I expect from this trial that … these men, and that man in the dock (his father), will be punished for the horrors they inflicted on my mother.’

He said he and other family members had destroyed photos to make sure they kept no trace of his father.

David had earlier described how the children had moved all their belongings ‘from the house of horror’ in the town of Mazan when they learnt of the decade-long rapes. 

Speaking at times through tears, David said that he hoped the trial would encourage other women to speak up about rape, echoing previous statements by his mother who asked for the trial to be held in public to shed light on the abuse.

Under French law, she could have kept her anonymity and had the trial held behind closed doors. The case has triggered protests across France in support of Gisele Pelicot.

David’s 38-year-old brother Florian told the court of the chaos that followed the news four years ago of the ordeal that their mother had suffered at the hands of their father.

He said his father was dead to him. ‘It’s been four years since I lost my father,’ he told the court, crying at times. ‘Our family has been torn apart.’

He asked the court to impose tough sentences, ‘so that victims no longer need to be afraid of speaking up’.

The statements followed weeks of testimony from the accused men, now aged 26 to 74, most of whom deny having raped Gisele Pelicot.

Gisele Pelicot is due to testify again on Tuesday, followed by Dominique Pelicot.

The couple’s children spoke in court in the southern city of Avignon as the trial entered its final stages, with the final set of accused testifying ahead of sentencing requests later in the week and the verdict expected on December 20.

Since early September, Dominique Pelicot has been in the dock along with 49 other men. Another defendant is still at large.

Joseph C., a 69-year-old pensioner, who visited the couple in June, 2020, took the stand earlier Monday. He is on trial for sexual assault for touching Gisele.

‘It was difficult to get an erection,’ he said, adding he stayed for 10 minutes and then left. ‘Had I known what he was doing to his wife I would have reported him. This is atrocious.’

Previous defendants have claimed they believed they were taking part in a game played by a libertine couple and were unaware Gisele had been rendered unconscious with drugs.

After him, Nicolas F., a 43-year-old freelance journalist, admitted he had ‘lacked judgement and strength of character.’

He said he went to Mazan to have sex with Dominique Pelicot, adding he performed fellatio on him. He nevertheless also penetrated Gisele digitally and performed an anulingus on her.

Nicolas F. is also on trial for possessing child pornography images. He allegedly offered a young girl to ‘relieve’ her Labrador, according to a message from 2010.

The men have been confronted with the videos of their acts, filmed and meticulously catalogued by Dominique Pelicot.

Of the co-defendants, only 14 have admitted the charges of aggravated rape, for which most of them face up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

The others deny having raped Gisele Pelicot and maintain that they thought they were taking part in sex games.