Daughter of man who ‘let 50 men rape his unconscious wife’ breaks down and flees court as trial hears he also photographed HER while drugged and had a file on his computer named ‘My Daughter Naked’

The daughter of the man who is accused of letting 50 men rape his unconscious wife fled court today after the trial heard he also photographed her while she was drugged.

Caroline Darian, alongside her mother and two siblings, broke down, shaking uncontrollably, and had to be helped from the courtroom in Avignon as the presiding judge made the harrowing revelation.

When police sifted through her father Dominique Pelicot’s computer files, they stumbled across a sickening folder labelled ‘My Daughter Naked’, said Judge Roger Arata.

It was believed that, as with his wife, Gisele, Pelicot had rendered Caroline unconscious with tranquilisers before lying her on a bed – partially dressed in her mother’s clothes – and photographed her.

The pictures had been taken at the family home near Paris, sometime before they moved south to Provence, in 2013. 

Police found a file in Pelicot’s computer labelled ‘My Daughter Naked’. Pictured: Caroline Darian (left) at the courthouse during the trial of her father

The revelation came after 71-year-old Pelicot was accused of aggravated rape when police uncovered more than 20,000 photos and images of Gisele being sexually assaulted by a total of 72 strangers – 50 of whom have been identified and are also on trial – as she lay comatose in bed having been drugged by her husband.

At least 35 of the defendants have pleaded not guilty and 14 guilty, including Dominique. One of the defendants is absent for unknown reasons, while another is on the run, according to The Telegraph. 

The judge today read out a series of justifications from  Gisele’s alleged attackers standing trial. 

One was quoted saying they believed it was all ‘a couple’s game’, while another attacker said  that ‘the relationship had to take place at night in complete darkness because the woman was shy and hung up despite her desire. She would pretend to be asleep’.

Meanwhile, another said that ‘as long as the husband was present, there was no rape’. 

Other defendants also claimed to be under the ‘sway’ of Dominique who acted like a ‘very controlling conductor’. 

‘I did what he asked but I didn’t know why’, another defendant claimed. 

One defendant expressed regret for the victim said that he was ‘as much a victim as she was’,  claiming to have been tricked by Dominique. 

But the judge declared that ‘the instructions were clear’ to the attackers who were summoned by Gisele’s husband. 

The judge also said that ‘none of the defendants had spoken to the victim’ and that she was in a state ‘closer to a coma than to sleep’ during the alleged rapes.  

Dominique P. is accused of orchestrating the sick rape ring, filming strangers he met online attacking his wife while she was drugged between 2011 and 2020

‘Come at night, without perfume or the smell of cigarettes. The men were to undress outside the bedroom, make no noise and leave at the slightest movement or sign that the victim was awake,’ the judge said. 

The judge, however, told the court that 10 of Gisele’s alleged attackers have ‘never been identified’ by investigators. 

According to German news outlet Bild, Dominque allegedly filmed the horrific attacks, got around by them and titled the files on his computer: ‘Abuse / Night of September 6, 2020 with Charly for the 6th time’. 

In addition, a video that was seized and quoted by French media, Dominique can be heard saying during a rape of his unconscious wife in October 2020: ‘No! No! Not with your hands! Not with your nails. It will wake her up, she is ticklish!’ The perpetrator wonders: ‘It’s crazy that she doesn’t wake up!’. 

Bild also reported that Dominique found his wife’s potential rapists on the internet and lured them through a dating website, through which he discussed his sick plans.

French newspaper Libération obtained some of the quotes from the heinous conversations between Dominique and his wife’s rapists. 

‘Do you still have them tested from time to time? Clean and safe?’, one chat partner asked.

‘She has no idea?’, another asked.

‘No, she puts it down to tiredness,’ Dominique replied. 

‘You’re like me. You’re into rape mode,’ he wrote to another interested party.

Dominique is currently standing trial in the French city of Avignon close to his home in Mazan, which is due to last until December 20.

But the Pelicots’ adult children all initially told investigators that they had no reason to suspect their father had committed such heinous acts against their mother prior to his arrest.

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 Caroline spoke fondly of her father’s presence in her life as a young girl. 

But the dark revelation of their father’s deeds plunged the family into chaos, and set Caroline down a new path.

Caroline, now in her 40s, has already written a book about the case called ‘And I stopped calling you Daddy’, which the Judge quoted from in court, telling the story of how she came to learn of her father’s crimes and their devastating effect on the family.

She said she was ‘haunted by the fear’ that her father may have invited men to rape her too, adding: ‘I’m convinced I was drugged, but he’ll never admit it.’

She also founded an association called ‘Don’t Put Me To Sleep’ which aims to raise awareness and campaign against drug induced crimes and sexual abuse. 

Before her father was caught, her mother had witnessed her health deteriorating, her worsening memory loss leading her to believe she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease while she battled what seemed to be a growing abundance of gynaecological problems. 

French press reported Gisele, now 72, told the judge in pre-trial hearings how she felt when she discovered the real cause of her physical and mental torment.  

‘He disgusts me. I feel dirty, defiled, betrayed. It was a tsunami, I was hit by a high-speed train,’ she was reported as saying. 

Gisele’s appearance in court on Monday for the first day of the trial was a testament to her bravery and desire to see her abusers brought to justice. 

The heinous nature of the case meant that she was granted anonymity and the right to have the trial behind closed doors – but ‘that’s what her attackers would have wanted’, her lawyer Antoine Camus said.

Presiding judge Roger Arata announced yesterday that all the hearings would be public after Gisele waived her right to anonymity and called for ‘complete publicity until the end’ of the court case. 

A black and white facial reconstruction of a younger Dominique P is seen in this handout image

Co-defendants speak with a lawyer at the courthouse during the trial of a man accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, in Avignon, on September 2, 2024

But she will also be forced to relive her horrific ordeal over and over again by viewing footage and images of the rapes she suffered in the presence of the men being tried for conducting that abuse. 

Including her husband, a total of 51 men are accused of aggravated rape – the biggest number of defendants to have been tried together in recent years, certainly in their region and possibly anywhere in France. 

Eighteen of those men remain in custody and were stuffed into the dock yesterday as the trial began. 

Another 32 who were granted bail also attended in the well of the court, though one failed to appear and is now being hunted by police. 

Mr Pelicot has already admitted to many of the crimes of which he is accused.

In previous hearings, he told investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquilisers to ensure she was unconscious and explained how he took a range of precautions to prevent her or their family from discovering the dark deeds.

Mr Pelicot imposed strict rules on each of the men he invited to rape his wife: Park nearby and walk to the house; do not wear perfume, smoke or drink; cut and clean nails; run hands under hot water before touching her skin; and withdraw at the slightest sign that she could be disturbed. 

Mr Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, said the defendant is ready to face ‘his family and his wife’.

‘He is ashamed of what he did, it is unforgivable. My client’s line of conduct is that he recognises what he did and there has not been an ounce of protest since the beginning.’

The same, however, cannot be said for the other 50 men on trial in Avignon.  

The accused rapists are aged between 26 and 72 include a forklift driver, a fire brigade officer, a company boss and a journalist. Some are single, others married or divorced, and some are family men.

Some appeared in court bedraggled-looking, sporting ponytails, earrings and beards and dressed casually; others were more clean-cut.

Their defence has been that they simply helped a libertine couple live out its fantasies, and their lawyers have suggested the defendants were lured into a trap and had no knowledge that Gisele was an unwilling participant. 

‘We are not dealing with habitual rapists,’ one defence lawyer who represents four of the accused told MailOnline. 

‘They agreed to go (to the Pelicots’ house) and take their responsibilities. But they did not have the impression or at all the intention of going to rape – otherwise they wouldn’t have gone.

Another lawyer said: ‘They went without knowing the trap that was set for them, maybe because they didn’t ask the right questions – they didn’t realise anything.’

But Mr Pelicot told investigators they were all aware Gisele had been drugged without her knowledge before they proceeded to assault her. 

Beatrice Zavarro, lawyer for the accused Dominique P, waits at the courthouse during the trial of her client accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, in Avignon, on September 2, 2024

This photograph taken on September 2, 2024 shows a road sign at the entrance of the town of Mazan, southern France. Dominique P, accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, faces a French court in Avignon

He insisted to prosecutors that only three men left the house quickly after arriving, while all others went ahead with the abuse, some returning to rape her as many as six times.

Ms Zavarro told French press yesterday that her client was not contesting the charges brought against him but wants his co-defendants to recognise their involvement in the crimes.

Mr Pelicot, who said he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine, is ready to face his comeuppance for masterminding the skin-crawling rape operation. 

But this trial may not be his last. 

The defendant has also been charged with a 1991 murder and rape, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, to which he admitted after DNA testing.

Experts said the man does not appear to be mentally ill, but reportedly concluded that had a need to feel ‘all-powerful’ over the female body in assessments included in court documents.