The trial of a French man who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife has heard how another man living in the same area copied the tactics to drug and rape his own wife.
Dominique Pélicot, 71, is on trial in the southern city of Avignon for repeatedly raping, and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape, his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a period of a decade in the southern village of Mazan. Fifty other men aged between 26 and 74 are also on trial for their alleged involvement.
The court proceedings are open to the public at the request of Pélicot’s ex-wife, Gisèle, 71, who has said she made the request to raise awareness of the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
On Wednesday, the court of five professional judges heard how another man on trial, named as Jean-Pierre, was an alleged “disciple” of Dominique Pélicot. He was not on trial for raping Gisèle Pélicot, but rather for using the same method to rape his own wife and enlisting Pélicot to rape her too.
Jean-Pierre, 63, a former lorry driver for an agricultural cooperative, is alleged to had contact with Pélicot in a chatroom and allegedly used the same technique to drug his own wife with sedatives in order to rape her, with Pélicot’s involvement. Pélicot is alleged to have provided sedatives to drug the man’s wife and travelled to rape her himself.
Twelve rapes of Jean-Pierre’s wife are alleged to have taken place between 2015 and 2020. Jean-Pierre has told the court that he has admitted the charges.
Police investigators said Jean-Pierre told them he met Pélicot in a chatroom entitled “Against her knowledge” on a website that has since been closed. He told investigators that he had asked Pélicot to come to his home when his wife was drugged, the lead investigator, Stéphan Gal, told the court.
“Each time that [Pélicot] travelled [there], he provided him with the medication for the next time,” Gal said. Pélicot’s lawyer told the court that Pélicot said he gave Jean-Pierre the medication four times.
Jean-Pierre’s wife is not a civil party to the case as she “has five children and wanted to protect them”, Gal told the court, saying it was “staggering” given the images that she was shown by police of what had happened to her.
Jean-Pierre’s 32-year-old son from a first marriage said: “The charges are very serious and I think he’s conscious of that.” The son said his father should speak out in court. He said he felt it was a “certainty” that Jean-Pierre was manipulated by Pélicot. “I have the firm conviction that had he not met this person, there would never have been any of this,” he said.
The court heard how Jean-Pierre’s childhood was marked by extreme poverty and violence and sexual abuse within the family. “I was raised by pigs in the woods,” Jean-Pierre would tell his children.
Eighteen of the 51 accused are in custody, including Pélicot and Jean-Pierre, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men. The last one, still at large, will be judged in absentia. Most could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of aggravated rape.
The trial is expected to run until December.