The trial of a Frenchman accused of hiring strangers to r*pe his intoxicated wife revealed harrowing facts, including her daughter fleeing the courtroom due to emotional distress.
The case against 71-year-old Dominique P. has shocked France, as the claims were only discovered by chance when he was caught filming women’s skirts in a nearby supermarket.
The trial in the southern city of Avignon, which is set to end in December, is looking at r*pe and sexual abuse claims against him and 50 other men aged 26 to 74 whom he reportedly recruited online to assault his wife.
Dominique P. responded “yes” on Tuesday when asked if he was guilty of the charges leveled against him. The ongoing trial will finally determine his sentencing as well as the charges against the other males involved in the sexual abuse.
The wife, 72-year-old Gisele P., is attending the trial, which she has requested be open to the public, as are their daughter and two sons.
Her lawyers claim she was so severely sedated that she was unaware of the abuse that occurred for over a decade between 2011 and 2020.
On the second day of the trial, presiding judge Roger Arata, who heads a panel of five judges in issuing a verdict, read out the key findings of the inquiry.
‘And I stopped calling you dad’
Their daughter, Caroline Darian, fled the room in tears less than 20 minutes into the hearing.
Arata described how n*ked photomontages of herself were discovered on Dominique P.’s computer in a folder named “Around my daughter, n*ked”. Darian collapsed in tears.
Darian left the room, terrified, accompanied by her two brothers and her lawyer, Antoine Camus, but returned about twenty minutes later.
The lawyer then stated that “it’s immensely painful, unbearable” for their children.
“Even if they are not discovering anything new as they know the case, it was particularly gruelling this morning.”
Gisele P., dressed in a white blouse, remained calm and reserved during the proceedings.
At the other end of the courtroom, but directly opposite her, sat her husband, clad in a grey T-shirt and expressionless.
She has begun divorce proceedings.
As their daughter Darian returned to the courtroom, she paused in front of the dock reserved for 18 of the accused in detention, including her father, but no one looked her in the eyes.
Some have already received sentences for domestic violence or r*pe.
In 2022, Darian wrote a book called “Et j’ai cesse de t’appeler papa” (“And I stopped calling you dad”) on the family’s reaction to the crimes being discovered.
Camus expressed hope that the trial will increase awareness about the abuse of so-called date r*pe medications in families.
According to France’s drug security authority, 42% of reliable complaints of date r*pe drug usage in 2021 took place in the private sphere.
Only 19% of incidents were reported as occurring in a party situation.
