Dominique Pélicot’s daughter leaves trial after learning he has nude photos of her

The daughter of a depraved French man accused of drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of men to rape her left the courtroom in tears Tuesday after a judge revealed her father also had nude photos of her on his computer.

Caroline Darian was visibly shaking as she appeared on the second day of the trial for her 71-year-old father, Dominique Pélicot, who is accused of filming the men who raped his wife, Gisele, 72, over the course of years while she was unconscious and drugged, The Telegraph reports.

Judge Roger Arata told the court Tuesday that nude photos of Darian were found on her father’s computer in a file titled “Around My Daughter, Nude,” the report said.

According to the website, Darian left as soon as he heard about the photos and returned about 20 minutes later.

Earlier this week, she told Le Parisien that she was overcome with fear that her father may have invited some men to rape her after a photo of her “in someone else’s underwear” was discovered on his computer.

“I’m convinced I was drugged, but he’ll never admit it,” said Darian, who wrote a book about the experience, And I Stopped Calling You Daddy.

Gisele Pélicot arrived with her three children this week to watch her estranged husband stand trial in Avignon, southern France, for crimes that have shocked the country.

Police believe the wife was unknowingly raped at least 92 times by at least 72 different men.

Of those, they believe they have identified 51, all of whom are also on trial and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. They include a firefighter, a prison guard, a nurse and a journalist, the Telegraph notes.

According to the indictment read out in court, Pélicot recruited rapists through a website, giving them clear instructions when they came to his home.

“Come at night, no perfume or smell of cigarettes. The men were to undress outside the bedroom, not make any noise and leave at the slightest movement or sign that the victim was awake,” the judge told the court, according to the Telegraph.

As the British newspaper notes, his wife has “no recollection” of being attacked and described her husband as a “kind and caring” father and grandfather.

Now, “He disgusts me,” she told the judge. “I feel dirty, tainted, betrayed. It’s a tsunami, I got hit by a high-speed train.”

The judge granted Gisele’s request that the proceedings remain open to the public to ensure “full publicity until the end.”

“She was afraid of this moment, but she is happy that the trial is open and that she will not be locked up for four months with her tormentors,” said one of her lawyers, Stephane Babonnea.

The case came to light when a security guard caught Pélicot filming up women’s skirts at a shopping mall in September 2020.

During the investigation, police found thousands of photos and videos showing Gisele unconscious and being raped at the couple’s home in Mazan, a small village in Provence, prosecutors said.

Investigators also found forum chats that Pélicot used to recruit multiple men to participate in the abuse, as well as messages in which he admitted to giving his wife powerful sedatives to drug her before the abuse occurred.

Pélicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said he felt great remorse and “realized what he had done.”

“He is ashamed of what he did, it is unforgivable,” she told reporters, blaming his criminal actions on “a form of addiction.”

Pélicot’s hearing is due to begin next Monday. Pélicot has also been charged in a separate case with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old real estate agent in Paris in 1991, which he denies, and attempted rape in 1999, which he admitted after a DNA match, the Telegraph reported.