Man in French Mass Rape Trial Admits Guilt, Apologizes, then Claims He Was Abused as a Child

On Tuesday, Dominique Pelicot, the 71-year-old French man who invited over 80 men to rape his then-wife, Gisèle, while she was unconscious between 2011 and 2020, returned to court for much anticipated testimony.

“She didn’t deserve this, I recognize that,” a reportedly “emotional” Pelicot told the court in Avignon, France. “I am a rapist just like all the others in this room. I ask my wife, my children (and) my grandchildren to accept my apologies. I regret what I did. I ask for your forgiveness, even if it is not forgivable.”

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Last week, the mass rape trial that’s rocked the country was adjourned due to his attorneys’ claims that their client’s health was “deteriorating” and Pelicot underwent a series of tests. It’s since been reported that he was diagnosed with a kidney infection and kidney stones. Pelicot and 50 other men, aged 26 to 74, are currently being charged with a number of crimes including rape, gang rape, and privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images. They face up to 20 years in jail.

According to Pelicot, trauma he incurred during his childhood informed his abuse of Gisèle and what he described as an “addiction.” He testified that he, too, is a victim of sexual trauma. After suffering a head injury at the age of nine, Pelicot said that he was sexually abused by a male nurse during his hospital stay. His wife, he said, was of great support in grappling with the experience. He also described an instance in which he was forced to witness a gang rape while working as an apprentice on a construction site during his youth.

“I’m not looking for excuses, but these are the facts,” Pelicot said. Notably, Pelicot said another male nurse was responsible for him becoming “perverted” in 2010. According to Pelicot, he met the man on the internet and he was the first to suggest that Pelicot drug his wife with a sedative. “That’s when it all clicked,” Pelicot said. “Everything started then.”

Though Pelicot admitted to inviting men he met on a now-defunct message board called “Without their knowledge” to sexually assault his then-wife without protection while she was unconscious, he insisted that his self-described perversions never involved children. In previous testimony, Pelicot’s daughters-in-law had revealed that he photographed them from a private bathroom while they were unclothed without their consent, and he was once overheard prompting his underage granddaughter to pose naked for him after she asked him for a toy in a store.

“When you suffered as a child what I suffered, you are not at all tempted by that kind of thing,” he said while on the stand. “I have never touched a child. I would never touch one.”

Prior to the trial, Pelicot blamed his wife for his behavior in sessions with psychologist, Annabelle Montagne.

“My wife and I had a discussion about swinging but she didn’t agree so I drugged her,” she recalled him telling her without shame. Montagne went on to say that while Pelicot said he loved his wife, “he sees his partner as an object to satisfy his sexual and narcissistic needs. His wife is then a partial object and no longer an object of total love.”

On the stand, Pelicot described their relationship differently: “I loved her well for 40 years and badly for 10.”

The trial will continue until December.

Man in French Mass Rape Trial Admits Guilt, Apologizes, then Claims He Was Abused as a Child

Amidst claims of "deteriorating health," Dominique Pelicot returned to court and admitted guilt before claiming he, too, is a victim of sexual abuse.