(Avignon) The ex-partner of one of the 50 co-accused of the organized rapes of his wife in France by a husband gave moving testimony in court on Monday about her persistent doubts that she herself could have been drugged and sexually assaulted by her ex-partner.
“I was manipulated and lived a lie. I loved my life” but “I still question myself,” explained, in tears, Emilie O. who lived for five years with Hugues M., 39 years old.
Then in a relationship with her, the latter went one night in 2019 to the Pelicot home at the invitation of Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in the trial for having drugged, raped and had his then wife Gisèle Pélicot raped by dozens of strangers recruited on the internet for 10 years.
Hugues M. is being prosecuted for attempted rape.
“I thought I was living a peaceful and fulfilling life, but I was wrong,” added Emilie O., without glancing at her former partner, from whom she separated in November 2020, almost a year before his incarceration. After seven months in prison, he has been appearing free since the trial opened on September 2.
The 33-year-old explained how they met online because of their shared passion for motorcycling. She described a companion who was “always respectful, considerate, gentle” and with whom she had “regular sexual relations” but from whom she ended up separating due to his “multiple” extramarital affairs.
A few months later, she learned of the facts alleged against her former partner in the Mazan rape case.
She then recalled in particular a night in 2019 when she woke up to find her partner having sex with her while she was sleeping. She had also been “dizzy” between September 2019 and March 2020 and had filed a complaint. But the tests carried out on her for the investigation did not reveal anything and her complaint was dismissed, “due to lack of material evidence”.
She explained that she has since lived with the doubt of having herself been a victim of the same procedure used by Dominique Pelicot. “Without this procedure, I would have said that it would be impossible. Now I tell myself that it is possible,” said Emilie O, before breaking down in tears.
“Whatever he says, I will never be able to believe him again,” she added in response to a question from Stéphane Babonneau, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, who had drawn a parallel between her case and that of the Pelicot couple’s daughter, Caroline Darian, whose nude photos were found on her father’s hard drive. She has since been convinced that he drugged her, or even abused her, something Dominique Pelicot denies.