Monster of Avignon ‘had a ‘disciple’ who learned from him how to drug and rape his own wife… and allowed his ‘teacher’ to have sex with his unconscious partner multiple times’

The Monster of Avignon, who recruited dozens of men to rape his unconscious wife after drugging her for a decade, had an “apprentice” who learned and copied his methods, a court heard as the shocking trial continues.

Dominique Pélicot, 71, is on trial in the French city of Avignon for repeatedly raping and encouraging others to rape his wife, Gisèle, also 71, in the southern village of Mazan. He faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

The court heard on Wednesday how another man on trial, named only as Jean-Pierre, 63, allegedly learned from Mr Pélicot how to drug and rape his own wife. The ‘disciple’ is not one of the 51 men on trial for attacking Ms Pélicot.

The former truck driver is said to have spoken to Mr Pélicot in an online chat room called ‘Against Her Knowledge’. Mr Pélicot is then said to have supplied ‘Jean-Pierre’ with tranquillisers to sedate his wife, before travelling himself to rape her.

The harrowing case continues to shake France, with the suspect facing up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of aggravated rape. The lengthy trial is expected to last until December – more than three years after Mr Pélicot’s arrest.

As new, horrific aspects of the case continue to emerge during the trial, it was alleged on Wednesday that Jean-Pierre’s wife was raped 12 times between 2015 and 2020.

Jean-Pierre told the court that he admitted to the accusations.

Mr Pélicot is said to have met Jean-Pierre in the now-defunct chat room, after which he agreed to visit him to give him tranquillisers and join him in raping his wife.

‘Every time that [Pélicot] traveled [there]“He gave him the drugs for the next time,” lead investigator Stéphan Gal told the court.

Mr Pélicot’s lawyer said he had supplied Jean-Pierre with the drugs at least four times.

Jean-Pierre’s 32-year-old son from another marriage said he was “sure” his father had been manipulated by Pélicot.

“I firmly believe that if he had not met this person, none of this would have happened,” he said.

Mr Pélicot, a retired electrician, has already admitted that for almost ten years he added strong sedatives to his wife Gisèle’s dinner and rosé wine to make her unconscious.

According to police, all of the attacks took place at the couple’s marital home in the town of Mazan, in southern France, between 2010 and 2020.

Ms Pélicot told the court that she had to get tested for HIV because “one man who came to her [to rape me] six times was HIV positive’.

Judge Roger Arata asked Madame Pelicot if she had any problems after the 10 years of abuse. She replied that she had been tested for HIV. He added: ‘I have been diagnosed with four sexually transmitted diseases at the Versailles medical forensic department.’

Police also found disgusting photos of his daughter Caroline and two daughters-in-law in a haul of some 200,000 images and videos he kept in a computer file labelled ‘abuse’.

About 84 men he met in a notorious Internet chat room took turns sneaking into their modest chalet in a village near Avignon to rape Madame Pélicot in the marital bed.

Eighteen of the 51 men charged are now in custody as the trial continues. Thirty-two are present as free men.

One of them, who is still at large, will be tried in absentia.

Mr Pélicot was due to be questioned this week by the Avignon Court of First Instance.

But his legal team continued to insist Thursday morning that he is not well enough to testify due to abdominal pain and a suspected bladder infection.

He appeared briefly in court on Wednesday morning, but attorney Beatrice Zavarro confirmed Thursday that he was “still ill” and would not appear.

Pélicot vomited and fainted in his cell, where he has been in pre-trial detention since 2020, between hospital visits for treatment and tests.

Ms Zavarro’s statements were accepted by Mr Arata, who said: ‘He requires medical treatment and will be unable to attend court for the remainder of this week.’

In France, prosecution can be stopped if a suspect is deemed too physically or mentally ill to participate.

Judge Arata has repeatedly stated that Pélicot is the prime suspect and that he should be questioned extensively.

But Mr. Pélicot has told psychologists that his wife was to blame for his actions because she refused to go swinging with him.

Psychologist Annabelle Montagne told the court in Avignon that she questioned Mr Pélicot in December 2020, a month and a half after he was taken into custody, during which he confessed to having carried out the campaign of abuse against his wife Gisele.

“Pélicot said, ‘My wife and I had a discussion about swinging, but she didn’t agree, so I gave her drugs,'” the psychologist said.

Ms Pélicot told the court that the subject had come up in a nightclub but she “didn’t want to get involved”.

The case only came to light after the man was arrested in September 2020 for taking photos up the skirts of women in a supermarket in a nearby town.

Officers had taken him in for questioning, during which he was examined by a psychologist because it “did not appear to be his first offence”, France3 reported.

The examiner ruled that the man had a “voyeuristic sexual deviation,” after which police ordered a search of his home.

During the search, officers seized a computer, three memory cards, two mobile phones and a camcorder, where they also found the tapes.

During interviews after his arrest, Mr Pélicot claimed that the appalling abuse of his wife of 50 years, Gisele, would have continued if he had not been arrested.

On Monday, psychologists described Mr. Pélicot as a Jekyll and Hyde character who drugged his wife so strangers could rape her at night.

He told detectives that during the day he considered himself a “good husband” to Mrs. Pélicot, whom he married in 1971 and with whom he had three children.

The couple’s divorce was finalised last month and Mrs Pélicot has been in court throughout the process so far, along with her adult children.