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topicnews · September 16, 2024

He reads his wife rape – the defendant will not testify today

He reads his wife rape – the defendant will not testify today

  • Dominique Pélicot (71) has been on trial in Avignon for two weeks together with 51 other men.

  • He is said to have drugged his wife Gisèle Pélicot for ten years and then had her raped by strange men.

  • The main defendant was supposed to testify last week, but he was taken to hospital because of kidney problems.

  • The trial was supposed to resume today, Monday. But the 71-year-old still cannot be questioned as he is still in hospital.

A sensational rape trial has been taking place in Avignon, France, for two weeks. The 72-year-old wife, Gisèle Pélicot, has already testified that her husband drugged her with sleeping pills and had her raped by other men.

She only found out about her abuse four years ago, when her husband was targeted by the justice system for another crime and thousands of photos and videos of the rapes were found on his computer. This is how the crimes were discovered in the first place.

Now Pélicot has been standing trial for two weeks, along with 51 of his wife’s rapists – but since the middle of last week he has been absent from the trial due to kidney problems. First, the visibly ailing Pélicot repeatedly leaned against his window in the courtroom last week, then his attendance requirement was lifted.

The process shifts from day to day

He was supposed to be questioned last week, but despite a large contingent of lawyers, journalists and the daily presence of the other rapists in the courtroom, the trial has been postponed from day to day since then.

He was taken to hospital while questioning continued. But the trial was finally adjourned on Thursday – the presiding judge believes that the main defendant must be in the courtroom, even if other people or the co-accused rapists are being questioned.

The trial began again on Monday morning. But Pélicot did not appear – and so the co-defendants were removed from the courtroom after some time.

Court has commissioned expert opinion

According to his defense attorney, Dominique Pélicot’s treatment could take another “24, 48 or 72 hours.” The court has now ordered a medical report so that doctors can say whether the horror husband will be absent for a longer period of time or whether he can return to the courtroom.

The results of the report should be available on Monday evening, and on Tuesday morning the court will announce whether the case will proceed or not. No hearings will take place until then – and the Pélicot sons will not be questioned in the meantime, as was originally planned for Monday.

Pélicot should not be able to get out of it

The medical report is intended to ensure that Pélicot does not simply shirk his responsibilities. That would also be contrary to the victim’s family. “Postponing the entire trial would be a scandal,” said the victim’s lawyer, Stephane Babonneau, to the assembled media on Monday.

A total of 69 days of hearings are scheduled for the trial, and a verdict is not expected until December. Each defendant could receive a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

The case of «Viols de Mazan»

The case shocked people far beyond the borders of France: 71-year-old pensioner Dominique Pélicot is said to have repeatedly drugged his wife Gisèle (72) for almost ten years and then left her to strangers who are said to have raped the unconscious woman. The husband watched and filmed the acts – he is said to have not asked for any money for this, he was only interested in “satisfying his perverse fantasies”, as the 350-page indictment states.

He was caught by a security guard while he was using his cell phone to film women under their skirts in a shopping center. During a search of the former electrician’s house, investigators found almost 4,000 photos and videos on his PC, which he had saved on a hard drive in a folder called “abuse.” These showed his wife falling victim to the numerous “visitors.”

For many of the alleged rapists he had met on Internet forums, he created subfolders with their pseudonyms, such as “Firefighter Chris,” “Motorcyclist,” or “Black David.”

Investigators identified a total of 200 rapes committed by Gisèle P. between 2011 and 2020. Most of them were committed by her husband, and in 92 cases by other men while he was drugging his wife. In addition to Dominique Pélicot, 51 other men have to stand trial and risk prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Apparently the rape dates were arranged via the well-known French dating site Coco.gg. Dominique P. offered his wife there. The men who contacted him came from the neighborhood, including a man who the unsuspecting victim often saw and greeted in the bakery in her village of Mazan. Some raped the woman once, others up to six times.

The investigations into Dominique Pélicot also reveal that he is a suspect in other crimes. His DNA was linked to a terrible crime: in 1991, he is said to have raped and murdered a woman in Paris who had previously been drugged with ether. He is also accused of raping a woman in Seine-et-Marne in 1999, from whom his DNA was found.

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