Man allegedly drugged his wife and recruited strangers to rape her 92 times in over 10 years – India TV

Paris: In a shocking revelation, a man is on trial accused of drugging and raping his 72-year-old wife and hiring dozens of strangers to come to his home and sexually abuse the victim. In a case that has horrified France because of the scale of the crimes, it emerged that the woman was so heavily sedated that she was unaware of the abuse she had suffered.

The accused, identified as Dominique Pelicot, 71, is said to have crushed sleeping pills and tranquilizers and mixed them into his wife Gisele's dinner or her wine at their home in Mazan, Provence, according to the Guardian. The father of three recruited men from an online chatroom where men fantasized about sexual acts with non-consenting partners to rape and sexually abuse them.

Police investigated at least 92 rapes by 72 men, 50 of whom have been identified and charged and are now on trial with the husband. The victim, now 72, only learned of the abuse in 2020 after being informed by police, the BBC reported. Her lawyer Antoine Camus said the trial would be a “horrific ordeal” for her as she will see video evidence of the abuse for the first time.

Presiding Judge Roger Arata announced that all hearings would be public, fulfilling Gisele Pelicot's wish for “complete publicity until the end” of the trial. The victim, supported by her three children, requested a public hearing because a closed-door hearing “would have been what her attackers would have wanted.”

When did it start?

The gruesome sexual abuse is believed to have begun in 2011. Investigators also found chats on a website in which Dominique P. allegedly recruited strangers to come to his home and rape his wife. Most of the accused rapists, aged between 26 and 74, participated once, but some participated up to six times, according to prosecutors.

Dominique Pelicot was arrested on November 2, 2020, after a security guard caught him shoving women up their skirts at the local supermarket. Police found a file labeled “abuse” on a USB stick connected to his computer, which contained 20,000 images and videos of his wife being raped nearly 100 times.

He later confessed to the crime, admitting that he “put her to sleep,” “propositioned” her and filmed the gruesome rapes. Medical records show that he procured 450 sleeping pills in one year alone. The men, recruited by her husband, were instructed to avoid any smell of perfume or cigarette smoke so as not to alarm his wife, and to leave if she moved even an arm, investigators said.

Who are the defendants?

Besides Dominique Pelicot, who was also charged with the murder and rape of 23-year-old real estate agent Sophie Narme in 1991 and attempted rape in 1999, the 50 others include a local councillor, nurses, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, a soldier, a fireman and a civil servant. Several of the accused have denied the charges, telling police they had no idea Gisele was not a willing partner and accusing Dominique of tricking them.

Gisele was reportedly drugged “almost to the point of a coma.” Her lawyers, who are now divorced, claimed that Gisele believed she had an illness that no one could explain and that she visited several doctors, always accompanied by her husband, who attributed her symptoms to fatigue after caring for their grandchildren. Her three children and other relatives suspected she had Alzheimer's.

“The trial involves acts of extreme violence that have been repeated over a period of about ten years. Photos are circulated, videos are inevitably viewed and it seems that publishing the file would endanger public order and undermine the dignity of the individuals, both the victims and the accused,” argued the prosecutor.

Dominique and the 50 other defendants face 20 years in prison if they are convicted of aggravated rape in the trial, which is expected to last four months.

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