The Monster of Avignon, who recruited dozens of men to rape his unconscious wife after drugging her over a period of ten years, had a ‘disciple’ who learned and copied his methods, a court heard as the shocking trial continues.
Dominique Pélicot, 71, is on trial in the French city of Avignon for repeatedly raping and encouraging others to rape his wife, Gisèle, also 71, in the southern village on Mazan. He faces 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The court heard on Wednesday how another man on trial, named only as Jean-Pierre, 63, allegedly learned from Mr Pélicot how to drug and rape his own wife. The ‘disciple’ is not among the 51 men on trial for attacking Mrs Pélicot.
The former lorry driver was claimed to have spoken to Mr Pélicot in an online chatroom called ‘Against her knowledge’. Mr Pélicot is then alleged to have provided sedatives for ‘Jean-Pierre’ to drug his wife, before travelling to rape her himself.
The harrowing case continues to rock France, with the accused facing 20 years in jail if found guilty of aggravated rape. The lengthy trial is expected to continue through to December – more than three years since Mr Pélicot’s arrest.
Dominique Pélicot is accused of recruiting men online to assault his wife repeatedly over 10yrs
Gisèle Pélicot arrives at court in Avignon, France on day eight of the trial
In a new artist’s sketch, Mr Pélicot appears at the courthouse in Avignon on September 11
As horrifying new dimensions to the case continue to emerge in the trial, it was alleged on Wednesday that Jean-Pierre’s wife was raped 12 times between 2015 and 2020.
Jean-Pierre has told the court he admitted the charges.
Mr Pélicot is alleged to have met Jean-Pierre in the now defunct chatroom, before agreeing to visit him to deliver sedatives and rape his wife with him.
‘Each time that [Pélicot] travelled [there], he provided him with the medication for the next time,’ lead investigator Stéphan Gal told the court.
Mr Pélicot’s lawyer said he had supplied Jean-Pierre with the drugs as many as four times.
Jean-Pierre’s 32-year-old son from another marriage said he felt it a ‘certainty’ his father had been manipulated by Pélicot.
‘I have the firm conviction that had he not met this person, there would never have been any of this,’ he said.
Mr Pélicot’s, a retired electrician, has already admitted to putting powerful sedatives in his wife Gisèle’s evening meal and rose wine over almost a decade in order to render her unconscious.
All the attacks took place in the couple’s marital home in the town of Mazan, south of France, between 2010 and 2020, police say.
Madame Pélicot has told the court that she had to get tested for HIV as ‘one man who came [to rape me] six times was seropositive’.
Judge Roger Arata asked Madame Pelicot if she suffered any problems after being abused for ten years, to which she replied that she was tested for HIV, adding: ‘I was diagnosed with four sexually transmitted diseases at the Versailles medical forensic unit.’
Police have also uncovered sickening pictures of his daughter, Caroline, and two daughters-in-laws in a haul some 200,000 images and videos that he kept of the on a computer file titled ‘abuse’.
Madame Pélicot has bravely taken the stand to give evidence against her ex-husband
Abuse took place in the town of Mazan, south of France, and was only uncovered after the man was caught up-skirting women in a local supermarket – prompting officers to search his home
Dominique Pelicot can be seen in this court sketch on the right
Some 84 men he had met in a notorious internet chatroom then took turns to sneak into their modest chalet in a village near Avignon to rape Mme Pélicot in the marital bed.
Eighteen of 51 men who have been accused are now in custody as the trial continues. Thirty-two are attending as free men.
One, still at large, will be judged in absentia.
Mr Pélicot had this week been expected to be cross-examined at the Vaucluse Criminal Court in Avignon.
But his legal team insisted on Thursday morning that he is not well enough to give evidence because of abdominal pain and a suspected bladder infection.
He briefly appeared in court on Wednesday morning, but defence barrister Beatrice Zavarro confirmed on Thursday that he was ‘still ill’ and would not be showing up.
Pélicot has been vomiting and fainting in his prison cell, where he has been on remand since 2020, in between visits to hospital for treatment and tests.
Ms Zavarro’s submissions were accepted by Mr Arata, who said: ‘He requires medical treatment and will be unable to attend court for the rest of this week at least.’
Prosecutions in France can be abandoned if a defendant is considered too physically or mentally ill to take part.
Judge Arata has continually stated that Pélicot is the lead defendant, and that he needs to be interrogated at length.
But Mr Pélicot has told psychologists that his wife was to blame for his actions because she refused to go swinging with him.
Psychologist Annabelle Montagne told the court in Avignon that she interviewed Mr Pélicot in December 2020 – a month and a half after he was taken into custody – where he admitted to carrying out the campaign of abuse of his wife Gisele.
‘Pélicot said: ”My wife and I had a discussion about swinging but she didn’t agree so I drugged her”,’ the psychologist recounted.
To the court, Mme Pélicot said the topic had come up at a nightclub, but she said she ‘didn’t want to get involved’.
The case only came to light because the man had been arrested in September 2020 for taking up-skirt photos of women in a supermarket in a nearby town.
Officers had taken him in for questioning, during which he was examined by a psychologist because it ‘didn’t appear to be his first offence’, France3 reported.
A black and white facial reconstruction of a younger Dominique P is seen in this handout image
A court drawing shows Madame Pelicot taking the stand, facing her husband and the 50 others accused of raping her
Police found a file in Pelicot’s computer labelled ‘My Daughter Naked’. Pictured: Caroline Darian (left) at the courthouse during the trial of her father
The examiner deemed the man to be a ‘voyeuristic sexual deviant’, after which police ordered a search of his house.
During the search, officers seized a computer, three memory cards, two mobile phones and a camcorder which is where they discovered the tapes.
During interviews following his arrest, Mr Pélicot maintained that the sickening abuse of his wife of 50 years Gisele would have continued if he had not been arrested.
On Monday, psychologists descrived Mr Pélicot as a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character who drugged his wife so strangers could rape her at night.
He told detectives that, by day, he considered himself a ‘good husband’ to Mme Pélicot, whom he married in 1971 and had three children with.
The couple’s divorce was finalised last month, and Mme Pélicot has sat in court throughout the trial so far, along with her adult children.
