Judges in the French city of Avignon are set to deliver verdicts on Thursday in a mass rape trial involving 51 men, including Dominique Pelicot, who has been labeled “one of worst sexual predators” in recent French history.
The trial has brought widespread attention to the case and transformed a 72-year-old victim, Gisèle Pelicot into a symbol of resilience and feminist advocacy.
The trial, lasting four months, involves 50 additional defendants aged 26 to 74, representing various professions. Upon conviction, the accused face imprisonment ranging from four to 20 years.
Who is Dominique Pelicot?
Dominique Pelicot led a chilling double life, outwardly appearing as a devoted husband while secretly orchestrating horrific crimes. During the day, he accompanied his wife to medical appointments for symptoms he himself was causing.
Over nine years, from 2011 to 2020, the 72-year-old retired electrician drugged his unsuspecting wife by lacing her food and drinks with crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medications. While she lay unconscious, he invited dozens of men he had met online to their home to sexually assault her.
Dominique’s offences extended beyond his wife. He also hid cameras to capture images of his daughters-in-law in private spaces within his house, including one who was expecting twins. These images were distributed online.
Police also recovered deleted photographs from his computer showing his daughter, Caroline, asleep in bed wearing unfamiliar undergarments with lights on. She has expressed certainty about being drugged and sexually assaulted by him.
According to the New York Times, he acknowledged feeling remorseful after drugging his wife, Gisèle, stating that: “The next day was terrible, because I saw what a bad state she was in,” while adding, “but I won’t complain today, because that would be indecent. She is the one suffering, not me.”
How did he use online website?
Dominique’s restraint, his lawyer suggested began to unravel in 2011 when he connected with other men on a notorious, unmoderated website. The site, which was shut down last June after generating over 23,000 police cases in France between 2021 and 2024, became a breeding ground for his growing depravity.
Even after his arrest in September 2020 for filming up women’s skirts in a grocery store—an incident that led police to seize devices filled with incriminating evidence—Dominique persisted.
Following his release, he resumed bringing men to his home to participate in raping his near-comatose wife. This continued until his second arrest two months later, based on video evidence of the assaults found on his electronics.
What are the old cases on Dominique
While in jail, Dominique’s DNA was linked to a 1999 cold case of attempted rape in the Paris region. During a police interrogation, he admitted to the crime, and the transcript was read aloud in court.
According to the records, Dominique lured a 19-year-old real estate agent into a building under the pretense of buying it. He pinned her to the ground, tied her wrists with rope, and used ether to incapacitate her. However, the drug’s effects wore off quickly, and the woman managed to escape.
Dominique is also the prime suspect in another cold case from 1991 involving a young female real estate agent who was raped and murdered. She was drugged with ether while showing an apartment in Paris to an unidentified client. In court this month, Pelicot denied any involvement in the 1991 case.
What did the various defendants said
Among numerous defendants who entered guilty pleas in the trial, he stands as one. The majority of accused individuals refute rape allegations, claiming their participation in what they believed was a consensual arrangement involving swingers.
Various defendants provided different explanations: some believed Gisèle was merely reserved or would regain consciousness, whilst others claimed ignorance of her drugged state.
According to The Guardian, several accused told investigators that it wasn’t rape if Gisèle’s husband had consented for her. “He can do what he likes; it’s his wife,” one said.
One individual described experiencing a peculiar sensation where his physical self felt separated from his mental faculties.
“I am a rapist like many in this room. They knew everything, all of it,” he said the initial days of the trial.
“I am just as responsible as them,” Dominique said months later, on his last day of testimony and cross-examination, the New York Times reported. “Without me, they wouldn’t be here. And without them, I wouldn’t be here,” he added.
Gisèle chose to reveal publicly
Gisèle Pelicot arrives at the courthouse wearing sunglasses shortly before nine o’clock, maintaining near-perfect attendance throughout the proceedings, BBC reported.
Breaking from convention, she chose to reveal her identity publicly, remaining steadfast in her stance. “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too.”
“She keeps repeating, ‘I am normal,’ she does not want to be considered as an icon,” her solicitor Stéphane Babonneau told the BBC’s Emma Barnett.
“Women generally have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they have to trust themselves. That’s her message,” Babonneau added.
Experts in court attributed his doings to a traumatic upbringing, as detailed by Dominique and his half-sister, Ginette Pelicot, who recounted the violent environment of their childhood home.
Throughout weeks of testimony, Dominique repeatedly referenced a memory witnessing what he described as his father raping and humiliating his mother—a moment that left an indelible mark on his psyche.
“In every man, there is a demon,” Dominique testified. Mine came from my childhood,” he added.During the proceedings, his legal representative, Béatrice Zavarro, presented evidence suggesting that Pelicot had endured emotional wounds from various traumatic experiences.
‘That’s their problem. Not mine’
Whilst denying drugging his daughter Caroline, Dominique failed to provide a credible explanation for possessing the photographs. He also denied capturing the images.
David, his son, voiced concerns about his own child potentially being subjected to Dominique’s misconduct. Dominique consistently maintains he never sexually abused any of his children or grandchildren.
When Antoine Camus, representing Gisèle Pelicot and their children, stated the children required healing and reconstruction, adding “only you can liberate them from this nightmare.”
Dominique Pelicot responded dismissively, “That’s their problem. Not mine.”