A French pensioner went on trial on Monday for allegedly allowing several strangers to rape his wife after drugging her, in a case that has horrified the country.
No fewer than fifty men, whom he recruited online, are also being tried in the southern city of Avignon alongside the main suspect, a 71-year-old former employee of France’s power utility company, EDF.
Police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.
The men, aged between 26 and 74, are accused of raping the 72-year-old woman, who, according to her lawyers, was so heavily sedated that she was oblivious of the abuse, which continued for a decade.
The trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her, Antoine Camus, one of her lawyers, said.
“For the first time, she will have to relive the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he told AFP, adding that his client had “no recollection” of the abuse, which she only discovered in 2020.
The mother, who appeared in court accompanied by her three children, could have requested a closed-door trial, but “that’s what her attackers would have wanted,” Camus said.
Dominique P. was discovered by a security guard discreetly recording under the skirts of three ladies in a shopping mall in September 2020, which prompted police to launch an investigation.
Police said they discovered hundreds of photos and videos of his wife on his computer, most of which showed her plainly asleep and in the foetal position.
The photographs are said to show dozens of rapes in the couple’s home in Mazan, a community of 6,000 people around 33 kilometres (21 miles) from Avignon in Provence.
Investigators also discovered messages on a website called coco.fr, which has since been shut down by police, in which he invited strangers to his home to have intercourse with his wife.
Dominique P. acknowledged to investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquillizers, specifically Temesta, an anxiety-reducing medication.
The violence began in 2011 when the couple lived near Paris and continued until they relocated to Mazan two years later. According to authorities, the spouse took part in the rapes, filmed them, and encouraged the other men to use nasty words.
The suspected rapists included a forklift operator, a firefighters, a business owner, and a journalist.
Some were single, while others were married or divorced, and some had families.
The majority only participated once, but some took part up to six times.
Their explanation has been that they just assisted a libertine couple in carrying out their dreams, but Dominique P. informed investigators that everyone was aware that his wife had been drugged without her knowledge.
According to an expert, her condition “was closer to a coma than to sleep.”
Her husband told prosecutors that just three men departed the residence soon after they arrived, while the rest engaged in sexual intercourse with his wife.
Dominique P., who claimed to have been raped by a male nurse when he was nine years old, is ready to confront “his family and his wife,” according to his lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro.
This trial might not be his last. He has also been charged with murder and rape in 1991, which he denies, as well as attempted rape in 1999, which he admits following DNA testing.
Experts say the man does not appear to be mentally ill, but records seen by AFP show that he needed to feel “all-powerful” over the female body. The trial is scheduled to go until December 20.
