Man Who Recruited Men To Rape Drugged Wife Absent In Court Due To Illness

A man who recruited scores of men to rape his wife after drugging her in France, Dominique Pelicot was absent in Court on Monday due to illness and need to undergo medical treatment.

LEADERSHIP reported that 71-year-old Pelicot has been on trial since September 2 over rape and for recruiting strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, Gisele, for nearly a decade.

The trial was briefly suspended mid-September due to the absence of Pelicot, who was suffering from intestinal problems.

“He’s unwell. He has to have medical treatment this afternoon,” Judge Roger Arata said at the start of the hearing on Monday in the southeastern city of Avignon. “We’ll see tomorrow,” he added.

He had already been excused from the hearing on Friday to undergo a medical examination; his lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro had told AFP on Sunday that the examination “went well.”

Pelicot had admitted to the charges levelled against him although the other 50 other men between ages 26 and 74 who are being tried along with him have all denied the rape charge.

Most risk up to 20 years in jail if convicted of aggravated rape as seven more defendants will be called to testify on Thursday.

Among them is 46-year-old Jerome V., a former grocery store employee, who sexually assaulted Gisele Pelicot six times in 2020 at the couple’s home in the town of Mazan in southeastern France.

Dominique’s ex-wife, Gisele who only discovered the abuse in 2020 after being told of it by the police, has requested that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.