Some men look for a satisfying hobby after their workday and take up gardening or golfing.
Dominique Pelicot came up with another way to spend his free time in the Provencal village of Mazan: he invited other men to rape his sleeping wife Gisele.
With breathtaking unconcern, the so-called Monster of Mazan gave this reason in court yesterday, as he explained why he committed the ultimate act of treason.
During his working life – as an electrician and real estate agent – he always had his “nose to the grindstone,” he said, but after he retired at the age of 60, he felt “completely lazy” and started visiting the perverted Internet chat rooms, where he got the idea for his sick plan.
During one of these online forays, some 13 years ago, a male nurse posted a compromising photo of his unconscious wife and boasted that he was giving her drugs for sex, describing which tranquilizers he was using and the most effective dosage.
Shortly after, Pelicot copied the trick by slipping the same pills into Gisele’s dinner. He took the perverted game even further by inviting other men to rape her.
The court in Avignon heard how his decade-long campaign of rape had endangered Mme Pelicot’s life. While intoxicated, she had a car accident and could have drowned in the swimming pool at their chalet in Mazan, her lawyer said.
Pelicot also had her raped six times by a man who was HIV-positive and did not use a condom.
In a courtroom sketch, Mr. Pélicot appears at the courthouse in Avignon on September 11
Gisele Pelicot arrives at the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, September 17
Dominique Pelicot, 71, who is on trial for organizing the rape of his wife
When he witnessed this “spectacle of deterioration” and accompanied her to doctor appointments because of unexplained memory loss, Ms. Pelicot’s lawyer urged him to consider stopping the rapes.
“I saw her suffering, but the addiction was stronger,” he replied, claiming that the man with HIV had shown him a false negative test result.
He added: ‘I betrayed her trust. I should have stopped a long time ago, or not started at all. But it was like I was dragging someone else behind me, and I just couldn’t stop.’
Yesterday, Mrs Pelicot listened in disbelief as the father of her three children confessed to what another lawyer called “one of the worst crimes ever committed in France”.
For four agonizing years, since his arrest, she had waited for him to stand before her and tell her why he had allowed dozens of strangers to defile her. This was his day of judgment.
Dominique Pélicot is accused of recruiting men online to repeatedly attack his wife over a period of 10 years
But if Pelicot was daunted by the idea of facing the woman he had placed in the hands of like-minded, dissenting spirits, if he regretted letting them use her “like a garbage bag,” he showed it in an odd way.
Yes, there was the occasional sob as he pleaded—no doubt in vain—that his wife and family would “forgive the unforgivable.” But most of his compassion seemed to be for himself as he offered a litany of apologies for his descent and ensured that whatever sentence he received, his 50 co-defendants would be sentenced with him.
After delaying the hearing to seek treatment for a urinary tract infection, Pelicot staggered into the cramped courtroom in Avignon with a cane and wrapped in a gray wool sweater and a white scarf.
Unlike his wife, who had proudly testified before the five judges, he was allowed to lean back in a chair in the dock, with a microphone on his stomach.
“Good morning, Mr. President, and hello to everyone,” he began his speech, sounding like an aging talk show host. “Yes, I recognize the facts of the case in their entirety.”
Gisèle Pélicot arrives at the court in Avignon, France on the eighth day of the trial
Caroline Darian (C) arrives on September 11 for the trial of her mother’s former partner
Then, presumably to gain sympathy, he recounted a series of alleged traumas that had marked his formative years. He walked into the room as his cruel father tied his mother’s hands behind her back and abused her.
At the age of nine, he was sexually abused by a hospital nurse.
When he was 14 years old, he witnessed his coworkers raping a disabled girl on a construction site.
“You’re not born a pervert, you become one,” he remarked, almost haughtily.
All these events were forgotten when he was 17 and met the “beautiful” Giselle, he said.
“I was crazy about her. She was the one who meant more than anything. I loved her a lot for 40 years and a lot for 10 years. But I will always love her.
I’m going to die like this. I’ve ruined everything. I’ve lost everything and I have to pay for it.’
About their sex life, Pelicot admitted that he was “always too demanding” and “had trouble living without it.” These problems worsened after they retired. Mazan and his wife often returned to the Paris region alone to care for their grandchildren.
Gisele’s daughter Caroline said last week that Pelicot was “one of the biggest sexual predators” of recent years
Dominique Pelicot can be seen in this courtroom sketch on the right
This handout image shows a black and white facial reconstruction of a younger Dominique P.
“When she wasn’t there, there was a terrible sense of loss,” he said, claiming that was when his “addiction” kicked in and “everything went terribly wrong.”
Then he realized he could emulate the nurse in the Internet chat room who had introduced him to “chemical submission,” he said. “He showed me things I thought were impossible … and it just went crescendo.”
Pelicot admitted that he enjoyed filming the rapes, but said he did it mainly to avoid being blackmailed by the men he invited to his home.
But towards the end his promiscuity began to backfire. Some men would follow his wife when she went shopping.
If you don’t let me [rape her]“I’ll come and talk to her during the day,” he claimed a man threatened him.
Pelicot said he was now so desperate that he considered committing suicide by driving into a tree.
Instead, he deliberately got himself arrested for taking photos of women shopping, knowing that the police would investigate his affairs and expose the rapes.
A drawing from the court shows Madame Pelicot taking the witness stand, facing her husband and the 50 others accused of raping her.
Several suspects claim that Mme Pelicot was actually awake when they had sex with her and that they gave consent as part of a swingers game. Pelicot strongly denied this yesterday. ‘I am a rapist like
all the accused in this room,
he said.
He also denied a lawyer’s accusation that he was “trying to look like a superhero” in an act of “bravado” intended to save his wife’s reputation – and that in doing so he was “sacrificing” the other defendants.
‘I didn’t pick up anyone. They all agreed to come to my house. I didn’t handcuff them to make them come. The tripod [he used when filming the attacks] was visible to everyone.’
During his four years in prison awaiting trial, Pelicot said there were times when he came close to suicide. He even attempted suicide after receiving a death threat from a fellow inmate (the Daily Mail revealed on Saturday how a photo of a coffin had been slipped under his cell door).
‘Today I don’t want to die anymore.
I want to fight, I want to prove, I want to educate myself in prison, which I couldn’t do as a child,’
he said.
The Monster of Mazan certainly found an eloquent answer when asked how it felt to be the protagonist in one of France’s biggest trials. ‘If I were a monument, I would be a very sad monument, and
“I don’t invite anyone to come and visit me. I don’t have that pretension,” he said.
When the judge gave Ms. Pelicot the chance to tell how his words affected her, she said she found it “difficult to hear.”
She left the court to loud applause from her supporters.
When Pelicot’s day of judgment was over, he staggered pitifully back to his cell.
Additional reporting by Rory Mulholland.