Today, shocking images of the rape of Gisele Pelicot were shown to a court in Avignon, where she courageously testified in a trial that continues to convulse France.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, testified Tuesday that he drugged and raped his wife and accused the dozens of men charged with him of active involvement and complicity.
Lawyers argued Wednesday that showing footage of abuse taken from his hard drive would be “helpful in revealing the truth.” Ms. Pelicot’s daughter Caroline Darian left the courtroom at her mother’s request before the footage could be shown.
Twenty-seven disturbing images were silently shown, allegedly showing Mrs Pelicot naked and conscious, in ‘indecent’ positions, and also showing her crotch.
She told the court she could not remember the photos being taken and argued that “they were trying to trap me with these photos… to show that I lured these individuals to my home and that I consented to it.”
The suspects have since maintained that they were unaware of the plan to sedate and rape Mrs. Pelicot. One of them claims that they saw photos of her naked and conscious in the garden. From this they concluded that “she consented.”
Gisele Pelicot, 72, arrives at the court in Avignon, France this morning
Lionel Rodriguez, 43, was on trial for the rape of Gisele Pelicot (pictured with her lawyer outside court this morning)
Caroline Darian left the courtroom at the request of her mother (pictured Tuesday)
Gisele Pelicot pictured in a sketch with her daughter and lawyer in court yesterday
Isabelle Crépin-Dehaene, defending, said the shocking photos showed Mrs Pelicot “awake” and “smiling”.
‘Not all women would accept these kinds of photos. They show that there was a request from the man that the woman was fully aware of.
‘I deduce from this that the Pelicot couple were playing their own sexual game.’
Lionel Rodriguez, 43, was one of the witnesses charged Thursday with raping Gisele Pelicot while she was semi-conscious.
He claimed he believed Gisele was involved in some kind of ‘game’, telling the court: ‘It was my biggest mistake from the beginning that I didn’t ask to speak to Gisele, but it seemed impossible to me that she wasn’t in the game.
‘Pelicot sent me pictures of Gisele, naked in the garden, but she was awake, and that gave me the impression that she agreed.’
Rodriguez said his wife left him after news of his involvement in the case broke, and he then turned to Mrs. Pelicot, 71, to apologize for his actions.
Wearing a black bomber jacket and dark jeans, Rodriguez said, “I never meant to hurt you, but I did. I want to ask for your forgiveness.”
“I can imagine your nightmare, it’s horrible to think that I’m part of that nightmare. My apologies won’t change anything, but I wanted to tell you.”
Mrs. Pelicot, who waived her right to anonymity, simply stared at him and remained sitting emotionless just a few feet away from him.
Rodriguez met Pelicot through a now-closed forum called Coco.fr and the two men exchanged messages over an extended period of time in 2018.
Lawyers for Rodriguez and the others allege the men believed Ms. Pelicot was an accomplice and a willing participant, and that they were defrauded.
Rodriguez told the court that Ms Pelicot was lying naked on a bed and appeared to be asleep when he arrived.
He said: ‘Pelicot told me to lie down next to her and I fondled her, I penetrated her, but during the act I slipped and he sent me out of the room.’
A 72-year-old retired Navy firefighter, the oldest of 50 men accused of raping the woman of the Monster of Avignon, also gave his testimony on Thursday.
Grandfather Jacques Cubeau denies raping Dominique Pelicot’s wife, Gisele. Gisele waived her right to anonymity in a lawsuit that has made headlines around the world.
And like Lionel Rodriguez before him, he apologized to her, saying, “Madam, when I discovered what you had suffered, I was devastated.
“Taking part in all of this has destroyed me. I hope you, your family, overcome all of this.”
Cubeau told the court he was bisexual and had a “libertine attitude” toward sex, but had not had a partner since he was released from prison in 2022 following his arrest.
When the prosecutor asked him what relationship he had with his children, Cubeau replied, “Excellent.”
When told that they had refused to appear as witnesses, Cubeau said, “I got myself into this, it’s up to me to answer for it.”
However, he said he believed it was a ‘scenario set up by the couple’ and when he arrived at the scene he found Mrs Pelicot sleeping ‘with her mouth open’.
Cubeau said: ‘When we first spoke, he said to me very quickly: ‘My wife takes sleeping pills at night and when she sleeps, the men come. ‘
“I think it’s a fantasy of theirs, but if he asks me to come over, I get the idea that she’s a shy woman in a swinging relationship.”
He admitted that he had performed oral sex on Mrs. Pelicot, but that he had not used his tongue.
He said he had “only” kissed her in an intimate place, claiming it did not count as “penetrative sex,” adding that she had “kept her underwear on”
During police questioning, Cubeau maintained that he had not had penetrative sex with Ms. Pelicot and in court he continued to deny this.
Mr. Pelicot gave his long-awaited testimony earlier this week after a period of absence
This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisele Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial, at the Avignon courthouse, in Avignon on Tuesday
Dominique Pélicot is accused of recruiting men online to repeatedly attack his wife over a 10-year period
Mrs. Pelicot’s husband, Dominique, has been nicknamed “the Monster of Avignon” because he admitted to drugging his wife and having 82 strangers rape her in their marital bed.
Pelicot met the men online and shared his disgusting sexual fantasies online, then invited them to his family home to rape his wife of over 40 years.
Police were able to view footage of the attacks that Pelicot had recorded and saved on his computer and identified 50 suspects. Another 32 strangers who raped Ms. Pelicot remain unidentified.
Eventually, Pelicot suggested that he come to his house in Mazan, near Avignon in the south of France, so he could sleep with Gisele.
Rodriguez said, “He mentioned pills, but it wasn’t clear whether he gave them to her or whether she took them.”
Pelicot is accused of drugging his wife for a decade and having her raped by the 50 men accused, while he filmed the abuse.
Pelicot admitted in court earlier this week that he was “a rapist” and insisted his wife was not part of the plan.
Police first arrested him in September 2020 for secretly filming under women’s skirts at a supermarket in nearby Carpentras.
His devices were searched and hundreds of pornographic videos and photos were found.
While Pelicot was in custody, he reported finding a hard drive labeled “Abuse,” which contained 3,800 photos and videos of his wife being raped between 2011 and 2020.
Detectives have recorded a total of 92 rapes, committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified as ranging in age from 26 to 73.
Eighteen of them are in custody and are being held in a reinforced cage in the courtroom, while the others – including Rodriguez – are free on bail and enter and exit the building wearing masks and hoodies to avoid being recognized.
Pelicot allegedly drugged his wife by slipping Temesta into her dinner. Suspected attackers include civil servants, a journalist, prison guards, a retired firefighter, a city councilman and truck drivers.
The abuse took place in the town of Mazan, in the south of France, and was only discovered after the man was caught slipping women into a local supermarket, prompting officers to search his home
Mr. Pélicot pictured appearing before the courthouse in Avignon on September 11
In another case, Pelicot has been charged with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old real estate agent in Paris in 1991.
The former electrician – who is in a wheelchair surrounded by guards during the hearing in Avignon that began earlier this month – has also confessed to being raped once in 1999 after DNA tests linked him to the attack.
The case is expected to last until December. Fourteen of the suspects have confessed to rape, while the rest deny any wrongdoing.
