A husband who allegedly drugged his wife and invited more than 80 strangers to rape her at their home for almost a decade went on trial on Monday in a case that has shocked France. Fifty men accused of taking part in the abuse of the woman are also on trial at the court in Avignon. More than a dozen protesters dressed all in black demonstrated outside the courthouse as the trial opened.
The father of three recruited men to rape and sexually abuse her from an online chatroom, where members fantasised about performing sexual acts on non-consenting partners.
The accused men recruited by her husband were instructed to avoid smelling of any kind of fragrance or cigarette smoke to avoid alerting his wife and to leave if she moved so much as an arm, investigators said. Dominique Pelicot was arrested on 2 November , after a security guard caught him filming up the skirts of women in the local supermarket.
Health records reportedly show he obtained sleeping pills in one year alone. The 50 men on trial with him include a local councillor, nurses, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, soldier, firefighter and civil servant, many of whom lived around Mazan, a town of about 6, inhabitants.
The men were aged between 26 and 73 at the time of their arrests. Detectives were unable to identify and trace more than 30 other men who were recorded. Investigators said she was devastated to learn of the abuse, saying she had no recollection whatsoever of being raped. He said his client, now divorced, had believed she had an illness nobody could explain and consulted several doctors, always accompanied by her husband, who blamed her symptoms on tiredness after looking after their grandchildren.
