The daughter of a French pensioner accused of enlisting more than 70 men to rape his drugged wife has called her father the worst sexual predator in the last 20 years.

Caroline Darian, 45, testified against her father, Dominique Pélicot, on Friday on the fifth day of a court case that has shocked the country.

“How do you rebuild yourself from the ashes, when your father is undoubtedly one of the greatest sexual predators of the last 20 years?” Ms Darian, who uses a pen name, told the packed courtroom.

Pélicot, 71, is accused of heavily sedating his wife of more than 50 years, Gisèle Pélicot, and inviting men recruited from an online chat forum to rape her in their home in the small town of Mazan in Provence between 2011 to 2020.

His alleged crimes were discovered by chance after he was arrested for secretly filming up women’s skirts while in a supermarket in 2020.

During her testimony, Ms Darian looked up towards the ceiling when she appeared close to tears.

She spoke of a closely knit family who overcame hardships and of a doting father who was affectionate and supportive.

“I loved my father, I loved the image of the man I thought I knew, I loved the image of this healthy, caring, considerate man,” she told the court.

After learning about her mother’s rape, Ms Darian had been taken to the police station where she was shown photos of a naked woman, lying in the foetal position in her underwear.

At first, she said she didn’t recognise the woman. “I don’t sleep like that,” she remembered thinking.

It was only after the investigator pointed out a brown spot on her cheek that she realised that the photo was her and that her father had taken it without her knowing.

“There I discover myself and I understand that the man who was my father in whom I had total confidence, who I thought had integrity, who respected his daughter, who was proud of her, who had always encouraged her, I discover that in fact, my father photographed me without my knowledge, naked,” she said.

Ms Darian told the court she believes her father drugged her as well.

Pélicot’s daughters-in-law, Céline, 48 and Aurore, 37, also testified and spoke of feeling violated after discovering their father-in-law had secretly taken photos of them in the shower and their bathing suits without their consent.

Aurore also recalled an incident in 2020 in which her school-aged daughters asked their grandfather for a toy in the supermarket.

“He replied: ‘I’d be very happy to get it for you if you pose naked for me,” she said, adding that she always felt unease around her father-in-law.