The shocking case of a French man who recruited strangers to rape his wife

In a deeply disturbing case that has shocked France, a 72-year-old man named Dominique Pelicot stands accused of orchestrating a decade-long campaign of sexual abuse against his wife.

The scale of the crime has horrified the nation, prompting more than a dozen feminist activists dressed in black to stage a protest outside the courthouse in Avignon as the trial opened on Monday.

Here’s what we know of the brutal crime

The decade-long horror

The heinous campaign of sexual abuse masterminded by Dominique is said to have begun in 2011 when the couple was living near Paris, only to be continue unbated after they moved to Mazan two years later.

The police said the 71-year-old crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication and mixed it into his wife Gisèle Pelicot’s evening meal or in her wine at their home.

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Health records reported by Daily Mail allegedly show he obtained 450 sleeping pills in one year alone.

The father of three then recruited strange men to rape and sexually abuse his wife from an online chatroom, where members fantasised about performing sexual acts on non-consenting partners.

The attackers would park a few minutes from the their home and undress in the kitchen. No money is alleged to have changed hands, the Daily Mail reported.

The accused rapists, all aged between 26 and 74 came from from all walks of life, and included a local councillor, nurses, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, soldier, firefighter and civil servant.

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Some of them were single, others married or divorced, and some were family men. While most of the accused took part only once, a few returned up to six times.

The victim was reportedly so heavily sedated that she remained unaware of the repeated attacks for years, as revealed by her lawyers.

Her state, according to an expert, “was closer to a coma than to sleep”.

French outlet Le Point reported how Dominique imposed strict rules on each of the men he invited: no perfume or tobacco, cut and clean nails, hands first run under hot water so as not to risk waking Gisele.

As per prosecutors, the husband took part in the rapes, filmed them and encouraged the other men using degrading language.

Police have now identified at least 92 rapes committed by 72 men in over a decade, out of whom 50 were identified and charged and are standing trial alongside the Dominique. Detectives were unable to identify and trace more than 30 other men who were recorded.

Their defence is that they were helping a couple live out their fantasies but Dominique told investigators that everyone was aware his wife had been drugged without her consent.

The couple had met in 1971 and married two years later before having three kids together. Their eldest son said nothing in his father’s behaviour suggested any deviance and that “he had always fulfilled his role as a father”, while their daughter spoke fondly of her father’s presence in her life as a young girl, Daily Mail reported.

He is a former employee at France’s power utility company EDF.

The trial

In November 2020, Dominique was arrested, after a security guard caught him filming up the skirts of women in the local shopping centre.

Police found a file labelled “abuses” on a USB drive connected to his computer that contained 20,000 images and films of his unconscious wife being raped almost 100 times.

The victim, now 72, only learnt of the abuse in 2020 after being informed by police. Investigators told The Guardian that she is devastated to learn of the abuse, and has no recollection of what had happened with her.

The public prosecutor and lawyers for the defendants had asked for the trial to take place behind closed doors for reasons of “decency” and to protect all parties.

However, Gisele’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau has objected.

“She wants people to know what happened to her and believes that she has no reason to hide. No one can imagine that my client will find any satisfaction in exposing what she has suffered. She wants this hearing to be open so that justice can be done in public,” Babonneau said.

“Whether one likes it or not, this trial goes beyond the limits of this courtroom. And going behind closed doors also means asking my client to be locked in a place with those who attacked her,” she added.

After deliberating, the five professional judges hearing the case ruled it should be held in public.

Regardless, the four-month-long trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her, victims’s lawyer Antoine Camus said, as it will be the first time she sees video evidence of the abuse.

“For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he told AFP.

On the other hand, Dominique’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro said he is ready to face “his family and his wife”.

“He is ashamed of what he did, it is unforgivable,” Zavarro told reporters on Monday morning, adding that the case was “in a form of addiction”.

But this trial may not be his last.

He is also facing charges for a 1991 murder and rape, which he vehemently denies, as well as an attempted rape in 1999, which he admitted to after DNA evidence linked him to the crime

Despite the gravity of these accusations, experts have noted that Dominique does not appear to be mentally ill. Instead, assessments included in court documents suggest he harboured a deep-seated need to feel “all-powerful” over the female body.

With input from agencies