The defense of Dominique Pelicot, who for almost a decade sexually abused his then-wife while she was under the influence of sedation that he administered himself, said this Wednesday (27) that the man suffers from a double personality, a disorder that would have been caused due to childhood trauma.
On the new day of trial in the case that attracts worldwide attention due to its perversity, lawyer Béatrice Zavarro said in an Avignon court that there are “two Dominiques”, a man dedicated to his family and another with a “certain perversity”.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, admitted to doping his then-wife, Gisèle, from 2011 to 2020 so that he and dozens of other men could rape her. The case gained prominence and has stimulated debates about violence against women. In recent months, thousands of people have taken to the streets in several French cities to show support for the victim, who ruled out secrecy in the process.
Lawyer Zavarro tried to explain the reasons why her client became the “conductor of the orchestra”, in her words, of the abuse against Gisèle. She expressed “deep respect” to the victim and then mentioned the “human part of the other Dominique”, who would be a “good father and grandfather”.
He also said that Dominique suffered a series of traumas in childhood before “falling into perversity”. He would have been raised in a harmful family environment and grew up in the presence of an “authoritarian and tyrannical” father.
The lawyer cited two sexual assaults that Dominique says he suffered: when a nurse raped him during a hospital stay, still as a child, and when he was forced to participate in the rape of a young girl, years later.
“You are not born a pervert, you become one,” she said, repeating the phrase used by her client during his first interrogation in court.
“This phrase is said by the other Dominique, for whom I advocate today. This other Dominique is endowed with a certain perversity, but before that there is a man.”
The French Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the Court on Monday (25) for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for Dominique. This Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office requested sentences of 4 to 20 years for the other defendants.
In addition to Dominique Pelicot, 50 other men, aged 26 to 74, are defendants. All are accused of rape of a vulnerable person. In Pelicot’s case, the allegation of violation of privacy is also important, as he filmed the abuse.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested 10 years in prison for 11 defendants; 11 years for 2; 12 years to 13; 13 years for 6; 4 years for another 6; 15 years for 3; 16 years for 4; 17 years for 3, and 18 years for the last, who would have gone to the Pelicot house six times to rape Gisèle.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office’s penalty petitions are more severe than the average rape conviction in France, which was 11.1 years in 2022, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The case came to light after Pelicot’s capture in 2020. He was caught in a shopping mall filming a woman’s private parts, underneath her skirt. In the days following his arrest, investigators found on his computers about 4,000 photos and videos of his wife unconscious and being raped by dozens of men.
The trial gave visibility to the use of drugs to commit sexual assaults, a practice known as chemical submission, and has been motivating debates across France on the topic.
Since the beginning of the process, activists and associations working for women’s rights have reiterated requests to all men to “finally assume their responsibility” in the fight against gender-based violence and “stop remaining silent”.
