“I should never have done that, I’m going to die like a dog”. These are the words of Dominique Pélicotthe man who for 10 years He drugged his wife to sexually assault her and so that also dozens of other men raped her to whom he recorded this Wednesday during his last statement at trial for these events.
It was in tears that Pélicot concluded his last testimony before the Avignon criminal court by addressing his ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicotand his daughter, Caroline Darianto whom he reiterated his apologies for all the pain caused, although he acknowledged that “it won’t be enough.” “She is part of what I keep deep within me,” said the accused about his wife of 50 years, who could not hold back her tears.
Pelicot faces a sentence of up to 20 years if convicted. He is accused of drugging and raping his then-wife and of inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious between 2011 and 2020. Fifty men are also on trial in this case for their involvement, but only 14 admitted to having raped her.
Tuesday, his Gisèle Pelicot facing the 51 accused for years of raping her, including her ex-husband. In her last statement of this long trial, which is coming to an end, this woman, who wanted a public trial so that “shame can change sides”, addressed her attackers and affirmed that it had been “the trial of cowardice”.
