Monster Dominique Pelicot who made wife Gisele suffer years of drug rape hell by evil gang

One of the worst sexual predators in French history - who admitted drugging his wife and allowing multiple strangers to rape her - has today been jailed for 20 years.

During a landmark trial that saw Dominique Pelicot stand to face justice alongside 50 other men, he told the court: "I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom." The white haired 71-year-old grandfather appeared in the dock at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, and told the world what he did to Gisele, his wife of 50 years.

Before proceedings were set to get underway, retired electrician Pelicot was rushed from court after apparently feeling unwell and in pain. It is also claimed he was found vomiting and fainting in his cell before being rushed to hospital. It meant the case was adjourned several times.

His lawyer Madame Beatrice Zavarro told French media that the father was suffering from a kidney infection, had a bladder stone and problems with his prostate. She also said he wasn't getting the appropriate treatment in prison.

Gisele Pelicot arrives with her lawyers at the courthouse in Avignon at an earlier hearing (Image:AFP via Getty Images)

When he did eventually take the stand his bombshell remarks left his fellow accused with no where to hide. Pelicot owned up to crimes that had seen his own daughter describe him as "one of the greatest sexual predators" of recent years.

He said: "Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist, like everyone in this room. They cannot say otherwise." Pelicot also focused on crimes he had allegedly suffered as a child, saying he was raped as a nine-year-old and then forced to witness another sex attack when he was 14.

"I remember nothing from my youth but shocks and traumas," said Pelicot. But all this changed, he said, when he met his wife as a teenager. "I was very happy with her. She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious. We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched."

Court sketch of Dominique Pelicot (Image:AFP via Getty Images)

Offering further mitigation, Pelicot said: "I am accused of many things. We are not born perverts, we become them. Even if it is paradoxical, I have never considered my wife as an object."

Then – in hugely dramatic scenes in court – Gisèle Pelicot was given permission to react immediately to her ex-husband’s opening words. Ms Pelicot told the court: "For me, it is difficult to hear it. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined for a single second that he could do these acts. I had complete confidence in this man."

In turn, Dominique Pelicot then pleaded for sympathy, saying: "I am guilty of what I did. I subjected my wife, my children, my grandchildren to this. I regret what I did. I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable."

He said Ms Pelicot – from whom he has now divorced – "did not deserve this". At the end of the short statement, Ms Pelicot lowered her head, putting her sunglasses on. Pelicot had been on remand since 2020, when he was first arrested on suspicion of gassing and then raping Ms Pelicot, while inviting men he contacted on line to do the same.

Gisele Pelicot has become a feminist icon for her bravery in the face of the horrific crimes (Image:AFP via Getty Images)

Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, 46, told the court he secretly photographed her in the nude, along with her two sister-in-laws. This was at the same family home in Mazan, some 20 miles from Avignon, where Pelicot had invited the rapists. Pelicot was first arrested in September 2020 for secretly filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in Carpentras.

His devices were searched, and there were hundreds of pornographic videos and photos of women. It was while in custody that Pelicot said there was a hard drive hidden under a printer that contained a file called ‘Abuses’.

It contained the nicknames and telephone numbers of attackers, together with some 3,800 photos and videos of Ms Pelicot being raped, between 2011 and 2020. Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.