Dominique Pelicot, 71, admits to drugging his ex-wife in order that dozens of different males may rape her and asks for forgiveness.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging his ex-wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over practically a decade, and is asking her household for forgiveness.
The 71-year-old’s listening to on Tuesday, the centrepiece of one of the spectacular prison trials in latest French historical past, needed to be delayed final week due to his poor well being.
He faces a number of prices together with rape, gang rape and breach of privateness by recording and distributing sexual pictures.
Pelicot appeared in courtroom with a cane Tuesday morning and spoke to the decide via a microphone along with his legal professional saying he had been on robust medicine and was allowed to take breaks to lie down through the day.
“I’m a rapist like everybody else on this room,” he mentioned, including: “I ask my spouse, my youngsters, my grandchildren to simply accept my apology. I’m sorry for what I did. I ask for his or her forgiveness, even when it isn’t forgivable.”
The case has shocked the nation and sparked nationwide protests in assist of his spouse Gisele, who has grow to be an emblem of the struggle in opposition to sexual violence in France.
Pelicot informed the courtroom he had a troublesome childhood and was himself a sufferer of rape, breaking down in tears throughout his testimony.
He mentioned he had wished his spouse to take part in swinging and that her refusal, coupled with the trauma of his youth, had helped set off his abusive behaviour.
“It turned a perversion, an dependancy,” he mentioned within the courtroom.
Pelicot, who mentioned she had filmed the acts of abuse as an insurance coverage coverage in opposition to the lads concerned, mentioned she had been the sufferer of blackmail because of her actions.
Gisele Pelicot was within the courtroom, carrying sun shades, throughout her ex-husband’s look on the stand. Spectators greeted her with applause when she left throughout breaks.
She had insisted on a public trial to show her ex-husband and the opposite males accused of raping her.
“For 50 years I lived with a person who I might by no means have imagined was able to these acts of rape,” she mentioned.
Gisele Pelicot has filed for divorce after assembly with investigators.
Prosecutors mentioned Dominique Pelicot, who was initially arrested after filming up a girl’s skirt in a grocery store, provided intercourse to his then-wife on an internet site referred to as Coco and filmed the abuse.
Along with Pelicot, 50 different males, aged between 26 and 74, are additionally on trial on rape prices within the southern metropolis of Avignon. Pelicot has claimed {that a} whole of 72 males participated within the abuse of his then spouse.
Whereas among the defendants admitted their guilt to investigators, others mentioned they believed they have been performing out a pair’s fantasy and that Gisele Pelicot had, the truth is, consented to intercourse.
Investigators discovered 300 images and a video of the acts and filed them into folders, together with one titled “Abuse,” in accordance with a courtroom doc.
Gisele Pelicot informed investigators she had suffered reminiscence loss and had consulted a gynecologist for unexplained ache.
The trial will final till December. If convicted, the defendants withstand 20 years in jail.
