Husband ‘who allowed 72 men to rape his wife kept nude photos of his daughter’ | World News

The daughter of a pensioner who allegedly drugged his wife so she could be raped almost 100 times by 72 men over a 10-year period has told a court she fears she was also drugged.

During the second day of the trial of 71-year-old Dominique Pélicot, his daughter, Caroline Darian, left the courtroom after the judge mentioned that there were nude photos of her on her father’s computer.

She told Le Parisien: “I’m convinced I was drugged, but he will never admit it.”

As presiding judge Roger Arata began reading out the details of the photos, Ms Darian – who was in the public gallery – burst into tears and had to leave the courthouse for about 20 minutes.

Ms. Darian, now in her 40s, has written a book about the case, “And I Stopped Calling You Daddy,” which the judge used in court.

She also said she was “tormented” by the fear that her father had allowed the men to rape her after a photo of her in “someone else’s underwear” was found on his computer.

The photos were found on Dominique’s computer in a folder titled “around my daughter, naked.”

According to police, who found chat rooms on the website coco.fr (which has since been closed), Dominque allegedly used the online forum to persuade strangers to visit his home.

His wife, 72-year-old Gisele, was allegedly drugged and raped more than 100 times, the court heard.

Gisele has “no memory” of the ten years of abuse she endured, which she learned in 2020 when police found hundreds of photos of her on her husband’s phone.

In photos and videos allegedly showing dozens of rapes at the couple’s home in Mazan, near Avignon, France, she is seen unconscious, mostly in the fetal position.

They moved to the village from Paris two years after the abuse, which is believed to have begun in 2011, allegedly took place.

Ms Pélicot, an ailing mother of three, remained in the public gallery on Tuesday, the second day of the hearing, supported by her two adult sons.

Police found a cache of photos of the 71-year-old after a security guard caught him secretly filming up the skirts of three women at a shopping mall.

The 71-year-old, who says he was raped by a nurse when he was nine, is ready to come face to face with “his family and his wife”, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said.

But for Gisele, the trial will be a “terrible experience” because “for the first time she will have to endure the rapes she has suffered for over 10 years,” her lawyer said.

Gisele could have opted for a closed-door trial, but “that was exactly what her attackers wanted,” the court heard.

The alleged rapists involved in the case include public officials, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a city councilor and truck drivers.

In a separate case, Mr. Pélicot was charged with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old real estate agent in Paris in 1991.

He pleaded guilty to attempted rape in 1999 after DNA tests confirmed the charges against him.

The violent rape case in Avignon is ongoing and is scheduled to end on December 21.

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