“I am a r*pist,” a 71-year-old Frenchman accused of drugging his wife so he and scores of strangers could assault her told a court Tuesday, returning to the dock after being ill for around a week.
Dominique Pelicot used a cane as he slowly entered the courtroom in the southern city of Avignon, before sitting on a blue armchair to give him enough comfort to take part in the hearings.
“I am a r*pist, like the others in this room,” Pelicot said, referring to the 50 other defendants in the mass trial — men he allegedly recruited online to r*pe his then-wife Gisele Pelicot.
“They all knew” that he was inviting them to r*pe her, he said.
But he added: “She did not deserve this.”
Dominique Pelicot is accused of providing anti-anxiety medicines to Gisele for nearly a decade, from 2011 to 2020.
While she was asleep, he would r*pe her and enlist dozens of other males he had met online to do the same.
Dominique Pelicot has confessed the allegations, but this is the first time he has talked at length since the trial started on September 2.
The court may also hear more from Gisele Pelicot, who was in the courtroom with Dominique’s brother Joel.
The defendant’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told AFP on Monday that client was suffering from “a clot in the bladder” and the start of a kidney infection.
However, a medical examination ordered by the presiding judge determined that he was fit to appear in court, preventing a delay of weeks or perhaps months in the hearings.
Adjustments would be made to the “sequencing of the hearings,” and Dominique Pelicot would receive “regular rest,” Zavarro said, adding that her client’s health issues were not an attempt to avoid justice.
Dominique Pelicot’s testimony will be critical for the 50 other men on trial, ranging in age from 26 to 74, four of whom have cases scheduled to be heard in the coming days.
Some of the accused have admitted that he informed them he was drugging his then-wife, while others say they thought they were part of a swinger couple’s dream.
The case has sparked fury across France, with thousands marching in towns over the weekend to demand a stop to r*pe and to support Gisele Pelicot.
She requested that the trial be open to the public in order to raise awareness about drug-related sexual abuse.
“Thanks to you I have the strength to see this fight through to the end,” Gisele told demonstrators Monday.