Man accused of recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his wife
The case in Avignon, involving 51 male defendants, has shocked France
- Published
This story contains some distressing details.
A man has gone on trial in France for repeatedly drugging and raping his wife as well as arranging for dozens of other men to rape her.
The defendant, named as 71-year-old Dominique P, is accused of recruiting strangers online to come to his home and sexually assault the victim for over a decade.
The woman was so heavily sedated she was not aware of the repeat abuse, her lawyers say.
The case has horrified France for the mass scale of the grave crimes.
Police identified at least 92 rapes committed by 72 men. Fifty were identified and charged and are standing trial alongside the husband.
The victim, now 72, only learnt of the abuse in 2020 after being informed by police.
The trial will be "a horrible ordeal" for her, said her lawyer Antoine Camus, as it will be the first time she sees video evidence of the abuse.
"For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years," he told AFP news agency.
Dominique P was investigated by police after an incident in September 2020, when a security guard caught him secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
Police then found hundreds of pictures and videos of his wife on his computer in which she appeared to be unconscious.
The images are alleged to show dozens of assaults in the couple's home. The abuse is alleged to have started in 2011.
Investigators also found chats on a website in which Dominique P allegedly recruited strangers to come to their home and rape his wife.
He admitted to investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquilisers, including an anxiety-reducing drug.
He is accused of taking part in the rapes, filming them and encouraging the other men using degrading language, according to prosecutors.
No money is alleged to have changed hands.
The accused rapists - aged between 26 and 74 - came from all walks of life and while most participated once, some took part up to six times, according to prosecutors.
Their defence is that they were helping a couple live out their fantasies but Dominique P told investigators that everyone was aware his wife had been drugged without her knowledge.
An expert said her state "was closer to a coma than to sleep".
Dominique P, who said he was raped when he was nine, is ready to face "his family and his wife", his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told news agency AFP.
He has also been charged with a 1991 murder and rape, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, which he admitted after DNA testing.
The trial, which is being held in Parc des Expositions in Avignon, southern France, is due to last until 20 December.
On Monday, the opening day of the trial, the woman turned up to court supported by her three children, AFP reported.
Mr Camus, her lawyer, said she could have opted for a trial behind closed doors, but "that's what her attackers would have wanted".