French rape trial: the clues the accused had given before being discovered

Horror dominates France, after the trial began for the case of Gisèle Pélicot, who was drugged by her husband and raped by strangers for more than 10 years. Despite the explicitness of the case, the victim had always believed that her husband was “a great guy“and that is how he defined it in one of his first visits to the police station after learning of the facts.

For everyone around the couple, Dominique had always been a good friend and father, a great grandfather and a tireless worker. However, the first investigations report a man with aggressive sexual behavior and various cases of abuse or harassment against him.

Pélicot’s previous causes

At this time Dominique is characterized as a monster by the accusations against him. However, despite the initial surprise that the defendant’s relatives found out about this story, the authorities discovered that the man had already been accused of rape, on two occasions, and also of murder.

First, Dominique was charged with the rape and murder of Sophie Narme23 years old, an event that took place in 1991. After being arrested on the complaint of his partner, the man strongly denied the accusations presented by the cold case unit.

“These are accusations based solely on conjecture,” said his lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro. However, after this first episode, the The attacker was also charged with attempted rape in Seine-et-Marne which happened in 1999.

In this second case, the Justice was able to find DNA of Dominique at the scene. Faced with this discovery, the man admitted the facts, although he denied to investigators having used a weapon to carry out the attack.

One of the first experts to testify was psychologist Marianne Douteau, who focused on the attacker’s “angry” character. “Mr. Pélicot’s sexuality reflects his personality: he is ordinary in public, But within her relationship she is obsessivesuch as in matters such as partner swapping, which his wife opposed and whose lack he compensated for with the use of pornographic forums,” he said.

Suspicions about previous crimes only arose when the police began investigating the case on September 2, 2020. At that time, the accused was caught by the authorities Recording up the skirts of several women with his phone in a supermarket

This was not the first time that Dominique had displayed this behaviour. Previously, on 31 July 2010, in another shopping centre, the man was also arrested for similar acts using a hidden camera in a pen. After this, the attacker He pleaded guilty and paid a fine of just 100 euros.

The statement of the daughter of the main accused

During the trial of her father, Dominique Pelicot, the daughter of the accused testified before a French court and sentenced: “He is one of the biggest sexual criminals of the last 20 years“.

“How can you reconstruct yourself when you know?” asked Caroline Darian, daughter of the main defendant. After learning what happened, Caroline changed her name to that pseudonym to write the book “I stopped calling you dad“.

The woman gave her statement for approximately 20 minutes in the Avignon courtlocated in the south of France. The authorities of this court will carry out the trial against Dominique and 50 other men until December 20, accused of aggravated rape.

In her testimony, Dominique’s daughter also recalled how her life “changed” On November 2, 2020, when he learned of the facts. Her mother, who had just been told by the police that she had been a victim of rape for years, called her to tell her. “My mother told me: ‘I spent most of the day at the police station. Your father drugged me to rape me with strangers. I had to see photos“.

After finding out, Caroline Darian called her brothers and stated that they were Helpless, they cried and did not understand what was happening.. “We are suffering, a pain that I do not wish on anyone,” she said through tears. A day later, on November 3, 2020, the Carpentras police proceeded to explain to the three brothers that “between 30 and 50“men raped Gisele Pelicot for over 10 years.