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Dominique Pelicot, 71, admits drugging his ex-wife so dozens of different males may rape her and begs for forgiveness.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging his ex-wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over the course of almost a decade, and is begging his household for forgiveness.
The 71-year-old’s listening to on Tuesday, the end result of one of the vital spectacular felony trials in current French historical past, needed to be postponed final week resulting from his ailing well being.
He’s accused of a number of costs, together with rape, gang rape and invasion of privateness by recording and distributing sexual photos.
Pelicot appeared in court docket Tuesday morning with a cane and spoke to the choose by means of a microphone. He and his lawyer stated he had been taking heavy medicines and had been allowed breaks through the day to lie down.
“I’m a rapist, similar to everybody else on this room,” he stated, including: “I ask my spouse, my youngsters, my grandchildren to just accept my apology. I’m sorry for what I did. I express regret, though it’s unforgivable.”
The case shocked the nation and led to nationwide protests in help of his spouse Gisele, who has change into an emblem of the battle towards sexual violence in France.
Pelicot instructed the courtroom that he had had a troublesome childhood and had been a sufferer of rape himself. He burst into tears throughout his testimony.
He stated he needed his spouse to take part in accomplice swapping and that her refusal, mixed together with his childhood trauma, had led to him misbehaving.
“It turned a perversion, an habit,” he instructed the courtroom.
Pelicot, who stated he filmed the abuse as a type of insurance coverage towards the lads concerned, stated his actions had made him a sufferer of blackmail.
Gisele Pelicot was within the courtroom, carrying sun shades, when her ex-husband took the stand. She was greeted with applause from spectators when she left through the breaks.
She demanded a public trial to show her ex-husband and the opposite males accused of raping her.
“I lived with a person for 50 years who I by no means anticipated could be able to this type of rape,” she stated.
Gisele Pelicot began divorce proceedings after chatting with investigators in regards to the case.
Prosecutors say Dominique Pelicot, who was initially arrested after filming up a lady’s skirt in a grocery store, supplied intercourse to his then-wife on a web site referred to as Coco and filmed the abuse.
Along with Pelicot, 50 different males, at present aged between 26 and 74, are on trial for rape costs within the southern metropolis of Avignon. Pelicot has stated {that a} complete of 72 males took half within the abuse of his then-wife.
Whereas some suspects pleaded responsible to investigators, others stated they had been satisfied they had been performing out a pair’s fantasy and that Gisele Pelicot had truly consented to the intercourse.
Based on a court docket doc, investigators discovered 300 images and a video of the acts and saved them in folders, together with one labeled “Abuse.”
Gisele Pelicot instructed researchers that she suffered from reminiscence loss and had visited a gynecologist due to unexplained ache.
The trial will final till December. If discovered responsible, the suspects resist 20 years in jail.
‘I am a rapist’: French man confesses to drugging and mass raping his ex-wife | Sexual abuse information
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