‘I am a rapist’: French man admits to drugging wife, inviting dozens to rape her
Global News
'Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,' Dominique Pélicot testified.
Dominique Pélicot admitted in a French court Tuesday that for nearly a decade he repeatedly drugged his unwitting wife and invited dozens of men to rape her while she lay unconscious in their bed.
In a trial that has gripped France and raised new awareness about sexual violence, Dominique Pélicot, 71, told the court that he also raped his wife Gisèle Pélicot, who has since divorced him, and that the 50 men standing trial alongside him understood exactly what they were doing.
“Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,″ Dominique Pélicot testified. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”
Dominique’s testimony marked the most important moment yet in a trial that has shocked the world. Although he previously confessed to investigators, his court testimony will be crucial for the panel of judges to decide on the fate of his co-defendants, many of whom deny having raped Gisèle, saying her then-husband had manipulated them or that they believed she was consenting.
Dominique was expected to testify earlier but was delayed after his lawyers said he was recovering from a urinary tract infection and kidney stone.
Seated in a wheelchair when he took the stand, he told the court the charges against him are true, while his ex-wife looked on from the gallery.
“One is not born a pervert, one becomes a pervert,” he told judges after recounting, sometimes in tears, being raped by a male hospital nurse when he was nine years old and then being forced to take part in a gang rape at age 14.
He said he tried to leave home after the gang rape as a teen, but his parents wouldn’t let him.