(Avignon) “I am a rapist, like those who are in this room,” said Dominique Pelicot on Tuesday, accused like 50 other men of raping his ex-wife Gisèle, from whom he asked forgiveness, during his trial in the south of France.
“She didn’t deserve this, I admit that,” the septuagenarian said from the dock about his former wife, whom he met in 1971 and whom he is accused of drugging to rape her at the family home in Mazan (South) for ten years.
Back after nearly a week of absence for health reasons, the main accused spoke for the first time on the substance since the opening of this emblematic trial of sexual violence and chemical submission in Avignon on September 2.
Gisèle Pelicot, who has become a feminist icon for having agreed that the trial be public so that “the shame changes sides”, remained stoic throughout her ex-husband’s speech before herself taking the stand to briefly testify.
“Not for a single second could I doubt this man” in whom “I had complete confidence,” she explained. “I loved this man for 50 years, I would have given him both my hands to cut off,” confided this woman who received the support of thousands of demonstrators in France last weekend.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHE SIMON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The accused’s ex-wife and victim, Gisèle Pelicot
Asked by the court to react, Dominique Pelicot then said: “I am guilty of what I did. I pray to my wife, my children, my grandchildren, Mrs. M. [l’épouse d’un co-accusé que Dominique Pelicot est accusé d’avoir violée, NDLR]to kindly accept my apologies. I ask for forgiveness, even if it is not acceptable.”
“I have to pay”
“She was wonderful and I was completely off the mark,” he said, while Gisele stared at him, “I loved her well for 40 years and loved her badly for 10 years. I should never have done that. I ruined everything, I lost everything. I have to pay.”
Previously, he detailed his childhood and two traumatic events he says he suffered during his youth: a rape by a nurse at the age of nine, and then, on a construction site when he was 14, where he says he was forced to participate in the gang rape of a young disabled woman.
“From my youth, I only remember shocks and traumas. In 1971, there was this beautiful encounter [avec Gisèle]”It was too much to bear,” he explained in a slow, sobbing voice.
“I lasted 40 years, I was very happy with her, she was the opposite of my mother, she was totally rebellious. I had three children, whom I never touched. She didn’t deserve that, I admit it,” he added.
According to the investigation, photos of his daughter and two stepdaughters, taken without their knowledge and showing some of them naked, were found on his computer.
“They all knew”
Dominique Pelicot, who documented all the rapes, filmed and photographed, in files filed on his computer, had already admitted to the facts, committed between 2011 and 2020, but he had never explained himself in detail since the opening of the trial.
On this archiving, he explained: “There is an element of pleasure, but also a measure of assurance. Today, thanks to this, we can find those who participated in all this.” Listening to these words, some of the accused in the room looked up and others displayed tight smiles.
And Dominique Pelicot again affirmed that the 50 men tried alongside him, whom he had met on the internet, knew of his wife’s unconscious state, as he was drugging her with powerful anxiolytics.
“They all knew, they can’t say otherwise.”
Fifty men aged 26 to 74, firefighters, nurses, journalists, etc., mostly from towns and villages in the region and some of them couples, are on trial in this case.
Some deny the rape accusations and claim to have thought they were taking part in a sex game between a libertine couple.
After being exempted from hearing last week, Dominique Pelicot received the green light from doctors to return to appear before the Vaucluse criminal court on Tuesday.
With the help of a cane and wearing a grey jacket, he slowly entered the dock. Regular breaks are now taking place to allow him to follow the proceedings.
The facts against Mr. Pelicot came to light after he was arrested in September 2020 while filming up the skirts of three women in a shopping center in the southeast of France.