'I am a rapist', said Dominique Pelicot in court on Monday, September 17. Pelicot, a 71-year-old on trial since September 2 over raping and recruiting strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife for almost a decade, was absent from the trial Monday after being excused for most of last week.
Pelicot, who has admitted to the charges against him, had not yet testified at the trial in the southern French city of Avignon. He is being tried along with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74 – many of whom have denied the rape charge – for alleged involvement in a case that has horrified France. Most risk up to 20 years in jail if convicted of aggravated rape.
Gisèle Pelicot, his ex-wife who only discovered the abuse in 2020 after being troubled by memory lapses, has requested that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.