Next witness. Dominique Pelicot appeared in the defendants' box late Tuesday afternoon, October 7. He was no longer accused, only a detainee, because he did not appeal his 20-year prison sentence after the first trial, and is now serving it in solitary confinement in a facility in southern France. His only visitor is his lawyer Béatrice Zavarro – "I thank her for that" – and his only activities are reading and writing – "That's all I have, that's what helps me survive."

At first glance, Pelicot still looked like himself: a massive, battered figure. He sat down heavily, using his crutch for support, seeming frail at first, but quickly regained, in front of the microphone, the self-assurance and arrogance seen throughout the four months of the first trial. For an hour, the 72-year-old once again delivered his vicious, toxic words, from which the public took so long to recover. His voice pulled everyone back into the swamp.

He recounted to the jurors how the rapes unfolded in the small town of Mazan, where the Pelicots lived. He described how he would crush three 2.5 mg Temesta pills into powder and mix them into Gisèle Pelicot's wine glass or mashed potatoes. The effects took three hours to kick in and lasted for 10 hours. He also described how he used wipes to clean his wife's intimate areas after the nighttime rapists had left.

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