A FRENCH pensioner is on trial for drugging his wife and allowing 72 strangers to rape her.
Dominique P, 71, allegedly invited the men he met online to assault his wife after slipping Lorazepam into her food to knock her out.
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Dominique, married to his wife for over 50 years, is said to have filmed the men raping her while she was unconscious.
The trial began today in Avignon after he was arrested in late 2020 and police searched his phone, computer and hard drives.
On them they found videos of the abuse which Dominique shared in a depraved chat room called “A son insu”, meaning “without her knowing”.
His wife had no idea of the rapes, which had allegedly been happening for almost ten years, until police showed her the footage.
A shocking 92 rapes were recorded with a list of 72 abusers which includes 51 people who have been identified.
Fifty men, aged between 26 and 74, are being tried alongside Dominique today.
One of her lawyers, Antoine Camus, said the trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her.
He said: “For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years.”
The woman, 72, has no memory of the abuse she suffered.
She is attending the trial with her three children after choosing not to have one behind closed doors because “that’s what her attackers would have wanted”, her lawyer told AFP.
Cops arrested Dominique in September 2020 when he was caught by a security guard trying to film up the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
Officials then said they found hundreds of pictures and videos of his wife on his computer, visibly unconscious and mostly in the foetal position.
They allegedly showed dozens of rapes in the couple’s home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people outside of Avignon in Provence.
Investigators also found chats on a site called coco.fr, since shut down, which included the forum where men exchange information about sexual encounters they have without their female partners – victims – knowledge.
Dominique allegedly used to crush Témesta pills into his wife’s evening meals and then invite the strange men into their bedroom to assault her.
He admitted giving her the drug when interviewed by prosecutors.
Dominique took part in the rapes, filmed them and encouraged the other men using degrading language, prosecutors claim.
When cops searched his devices they found a file labelled “ABUS”, or “abuses” on a flash drive.
On it were hundreds of videos with the dates, names and nature of the abuse.
Some of the files had labels which included names like “ABUS/night of May 26, 2020 with MARC SODO 5th time” or “ABUS/night of 06 09 2020 with Charly 6th time.”
The accused rapists included a forklift driver, a fire brigade officer, a company boss and a journalist.
Some were single, others married or divorced, and some were family men.
Most participated just once, but some took part up to six times.
Their defence has been that they were living out a fantasy with a willing couple, but Dominique told investigators that all were aware his wife had been drugged without her knowledge.
He also told prosecutors that just three men left the house shortly after arriving, while all others proceeded to have intercourse with his wife.
An expert said her state “was closer to a coma than to sleep”.
The rapes allegedly stretched almost ten years from July 2011 to October 2020.
It began when the couple was living near Paris, and continued after they moved to Mazan two years later.
Dominique has also been charged with a 1991 murder and rape, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, to which he admitted after DNA testing.
Experts said the man does not appear to be mentally ill, however in documents seen by AFP, they said he had a need to feel “all-powerful” over the female body.
The trial is due to last until December 20.
