By Mary Jones and Ben Emos | Thursday, September 5, 2024 | 3 min read
A man is on trial in France, accused of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife, and facilitating her rape by dozens of other men while she was unconscious, according to court documents.
The victim, 72-year-old Gisèle, appeared in an Avignon courtroom on Monday for the trial’s opening, wearing sunglasses and accompanied by her daughter and two sons.
Over the next four months, she will face her alleged abusers, most of whom she has never met.
Prosecutors allege that the defendant, 71-year-old Dominique, recruited men online to rape his wife after drugging her with sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication.
The accused man faces nine charges, including multiple counts of rape with aggravating circumstances, drugging a victim to facilitate rape, and sharing images of the assaults.
Prosecutors built their case after Dominique allegedly recorded many of the assaults. He has been in pre-trial detention since 2020, and courtroom sketches depict him wearing a black t-shirt, seated facing his wife.
Dominique’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, told journalists that her client has fully admitted to his actions, stating, “There was not an ounce of contestation during the whole investigation.”
In the dock, the men accused of participating in the rapes sat with their heads down.
Police have identified at least 92 sexual assaults involving 72 men aged 26 to 74, according to court documents. Fifty of these men were identified, and many have been charged with aggravated or attempted rape, standing trial alongside Dominique.
The abuse spanned nearly ten years, beginning in 2011. The crimes were uncovered in 2020 when Dominique was caught filming under women’s skirts at a shopping center. A subsequent search of his phone and computer revealed evidence of the rapes, leading to an investigation and the devastating revelation to Gisèle of the years of abuse she had unknowingly endured.
Court documents indicate that Dominique claimed the other men knew his wife had been drugged without her consent, though several of the defendants deny this. Christophe Huguenin-Virchaux, a lawyer for one of the accused, told FN that his client acknowledged sexual relations took place but believed they were part of a consensual “sexual game” between the husband and wife, and claimed he was unaware Gisèle had been drugged.
Throughout the trial, Gisèle will be confronted with the grim reality of what was done to her. On Tuesday, she listened as the horrific acts she endured were detailed, along with the defense arguments presented by the accused men’s lawyers.
“It was very difficult,” Gisèle’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, told FN on Tuesday. “It was unbearable for her to hear people claim they thought she was pretending to sleep and believed the acts were consensual.”
Another of her lawyers, Antoine Arebalo-Camus, had previously told reporters that “she had no idea what had been inflicted on her, so she has no memory of the rapes she suffered for 10 years.”
Despite the option to request a private trial, Babonneau explained that Gisèle chose a public trial so that “everyone can hear and understand the excuses given by men in such circumstances.”
Gisèle’s daughter revealed that her mother had sought medical advice for memory loss and extreme fatigue, symptoms caused by the drugs. In interviews with French media, she shared that her mother consulted doctors and neurologists, but the medical community failed to detect the underlying issue.
In response to her mother’s ordeal, the daughter has launched an awareness campaign called “M’endors Pas” (Don’t Put Me to Sleep) to raise awareness about drug-facilitated sexual assault.
The trial, which began on September 2 in Avignon, is expected to conclude with a verdict on December 20.
