Guy who drugged spouse in French mass rape case instructed: You’ll be able to die by myself

Tensions on the French mass rape trial burst into the open on Wednesday when Dominique Pelicot’s daughter Caroline shouted at her father from around the court docket that he would “die by myself like a canine”.

Caroline Darian, 45, has many times mentioned she is satisfied her father drugged and abused her after semi-naked pictures of her asleep have been discovered on his pc.

He has denied abusing her however has admitted drugging his spouse Gisèle for a decade and recruiting males on-line to rape her of their house when she was once subconscious.

Dominique Pelicot and 50 different males were on trial since September, and a verdict is anticipated on 20 December.

All over an emotional day in court docket in Avignon, Gisèle Pelicot’s attorneys gave their final arguments, describing the historical nature of the trial and paying tribute to her braveness in waiving her anonymity to deliver the mass rape trial into the open.

In her statements to the court docket Caroline spoke of her anguish at what she says are chronic lies via her father.

Previous this week, with a voice filled with emotion, she instructed the court docket her lifestyles had “stopped” when police first confirmed her pictures from her father’s pc in 2020.

On Wednesday, Dominique Pelicot was once given an opportunity to handle his daughter whilst taking the stand for the general time on this trial.

The primary defendant mentioned he maximum wanted he nonetheless had Caroline’s make stronger.

“Some might snigger but it surely’s my daughter I want I may have a look at within the face. It hurts to look her like this,” he mentioned, sitting in a pitcher field handiest metres clear of his daughter and the remainder of his circle of relatives.

“I would really like to look her, I would really like to speak to her,” he added. As his voice faltered, Caroline’s rose: “I can by no means come see you. By no means. You’ll die by myself like a canine,” she shouted.

“All of us die by myself,” he responded. “You particularly,” she hit again.

It was once the remaining public trade between a father and daughter who via all accounts had had, for a few years, a loving and shut courting.

Mr Pelicot recalled visiting her in health facility when she was once recuperating from surgical operation as a kid so he may grasp her and luxury her, and shared recollections of her teenage years.

When he repeated that he would all the time love her even though she had stopped loving him, she appeared forward silently, tears streaming down her face – however didn’t reply.

It was once handiest later, when the consultation ended, that she approached the field her father sat in and shouted: “You had two months [to tell the truth]!”

All over wondering, Mr Pelicot additionally mentioned that he was once a intercourse addict and that obtaining came upon via police in November 2020 had “unburdened him”.

He denied that his crimes in opposition to his spouse have been sparked via an inferiority complicated or via a want for revenge for an affair she had within the Eighties.

Requested what he thought of chemical submission – drugging somebody for the needs of coercion or attack – he replied: “It’s crap. It annihilates the whole thing. It will have to by no means be finished.”

Mr Pelicot’s statements have been adopted via final arguments from Gisèle Pelicot’s criminal crew.

Legal professionals for the 50 different defendants will give their very own final arguments from subsequent week. They’re anticipated to discover extra deeply the defence that most of the males can’t be to blame as a result of they didn’t realise Ms Pelicot was once subconscious and subsequently didn’t “know” they have been raping her.

Over nearly 3 hours Ms Pelicot’s attorneys, Antoine Camus and Stéphane Babonneau, retold the horrific tale of Dominique Pelicot’s crimes, peppering their account with literary references.

“Everybody contributed to this monstrosity on their very own stage, and allowed a girl’s ordeal to move on. It is the banality of evil of [philosopher] Hannah Arendt,” mentioned Mr Camus.

They pleaded with the judges at hand down sentences that mirrored the level of the struggling of Gisèle Pelicot and her circle of relatives.

Mr Camus mentioned he was once conscious about the “expectancies and hopes on this room and past” for the trial, which he mentioned he described as historical, as a result of “we badly, urgently need and wish it to be”.

Leaning closely at the perception of loose will, he pushed aside the defence’s argument that most of the males who allegedly raped Ms Pelicot did so as a result of they have been intimidated, manipulated or tricked via her husband. “Manipulation isn’t hypnosis,” he mentioned.

The reality they have been all mindful that Mr Pelicot was once “recruiting” many different males too will have to be taken into consideration via the judges, he added.

“Everybody who got here into that space of horrors knew that others had come prior to him and others would practice,” Mr Camus mentioned.

His colleague painted a devastating image of Ms Pelicot’s lifestyles since her husband’s crimes had grow to be recognized.

Stéphane Babonneau then described what had led Ms Pelicot – who via then was once residing in a small village below her maiden identify – to surrender her anonymity and open the trial to the general public and the media.

It was once in 2023, he mentioned, when French media started reporting at the Pelicot case the use of pseudonyms that “a sense of insurrection began to grab Gisèle Pelicot”.

“She determined to take again regulate of her lifestyles. The instant had come for disgrace to modify aspects.”

The desire to forestall hiding had awoken in her, he mentioned, as a result of she hadn’t finished anything else fallacious. And she or he idea the main points of her case and the movies of the alleged attacks would lend a hand divulge the truth of rape.

“For her tale to be helpful and to lend a hand different girls she understood she needed to surrender the anonymity that had served her for years,” Mr Babonneau defined. “She needed to settle for she would perpetually be the sufferer of the Mazan rapes.”

The legal professional additionally prompt judges to not settle for that the defendants had made a “mistake” when – as some have mentioned – they raped Ms Pelicot involuntarily or “out of stupidity or lack of knowledge”.

“In the event you settle for the appropriate to screw up, what is going to prevent some other guy the next day from announcing that once a girl instructed him ‘no’ he in truth understood ‘sure’? That he additionally made a mistake?”

“I ask you to reject the appropriate to make errors which might put society at risk – and on the possibility of seeing extra Gisèle Pelicots,” Mr Babonneau mentioned.

He ended via paying tribute to Ms Pelicot and mentioned the trial could be a “legacy” for long run generations: “They’ll listen the identify Gisèle Pelicot, they’re going to listen about her braveness and about the fee she paid.”

Turning to take a look at Ms Pelicot, he mentioned: “You probably did your task. You went past what was once anticipated of you.”

“Now, cross at the torch to the others to hold at the battle you by no means selected.”

Gisèle Pelicot, to his proper, wiped her eyes.