Face to face on the witness stand, David Pelicot turned to his father, Dominique Pelicot, and asked him to reveal in court what he did to his sister, who uses the pseudonym Caroline Darian. “Tell her what you did to my sister, who suffers every day and will suffer for the rest of her life, because she believes that you will never tell her the truth,” he asked, leaving the same call in relation to his own son, in reference to the conversations between Dominique Pelicot and one of his grandchildren, whom he asked to “play the doctor.”

Doubt haunts an entire family, in the words of their own children, “devastated” by the actions of Dominique Pelicot, the man accused of drugging and allowing death. Rape of women by about 80 men for more than ten years. David and Florian Pelicot, aged 5 and 38 respectively, testified in court this Monday as witnesses in their father’s trial, which, they consider, became the “trial of an entire family.” “We hope that in the future we can erase the man on my left from our minds,” said David Pelicot, referring to his father, quoted by France 24.

Throughout his testimony, David identified his father as “this gentleman” and expressed the hope that he and his co-defendants, 47 men of various ages, would be “punished by the horrors and atrocities committed” against his mother, Gisèle Pelicot.

Dominique Pelicot almost immediately confessed to the sexual assaults committed against his wife, following his arrest on November 2, 2020, when he was caught by a security guard filming women’s skirts in a local supermarket. Investigating the crime, police found a file labeled “abuse” on a USB stick connected to his computer, which contained 20,000 images and films of his wife being raped almost 100 times over ten years.

From “dad” to “father”. The revelations of Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter who lives without knowing if she was sexually abused by her father

Regarding the abuse committed against other family members, such as his daughter or his grandchildren, Dominique Pelicot continues to insist in court that he did “nothing” to them, despite the fact that images of his daughter and his daughter were found in the same pen. her daughter-in-law naked while sleeping.

“You said I was a saint, but you were the devil himself.”

Florian Pelicot, 38, the couple’s youngest son, revealed in court the difficulty in recovering after discovering that his father was one of the “biggest criminals of the last 20 years.” Their marriage could not withstand the shocking revelations that their father was a sex offender. “You always said that our mother was a saint, but you were the devil in person“he stated, addressing Dominique Pelicot in court during the testimony of his two children.

The former couple’s youngest son, Gisèle Pelicot, divorced her husband after discovering the sexual abuse, admitted that there were suspicious moments in the past, especially in light of what she knows now. In his testimony, cited by The Guardian, he recalled the occasions when his father answered his mother’s phone when she called. He also said that one summer vacation, during a dinner where his mother drank only a glass of wine, he saw her “go out” in front of the guests.

“I felt that he was no longer with us, I was completely stunnedLooking ahead…I said, ‘Mom, are you okay’? He got up quickly and said ‘I’m going to put her to bed’. We went home. But imagine if you had forgotten something and returned home, what would you have found? “He planned to do what we now know he did,” he described.

He also revealed that Dominique Pelicot seemed to be “uncomfortable” and that he “sweated” every time he had to do it. access your computer to, for example, print drawings for your grandchildren to color. It was through this device that he recruited men to rape women and in which he kept recordings of the abuse that were later shared by a community.

Florian Pelicot’s ex-wife Aurore, who was also photographed naked by Dominique Pelicot with hidden cameras, also testified in court. She revealed that, as a child, she was abused by her grandfather, a police officer, and said she understood the importance of this trial. “Today I want to ask the question: how did we get to this situation? How can human beings do such things?” he asked.

The trial against Dominique Pelicot and 49 other men enters the final phase

The testimonies of the former couple’s children appear in the final phase of the trial against Dominique Pelicot and the 49 co-defendants in the court of the French city of Avignon, in the south of the country. The final group of defendants will still testify before sentencing requests later in the week and the verdict will be known next month.

Twelve men, including the main accused, pleaded guilty to the crimes of sexual abuse and serial rape of Gisèle Pelicot. The rest admitted that they had sexual relations with her, but said they had no intention of raping her. Instead, many argued that they believed the relationships were consensual. Their line of defense is that they thought they were participating in sexual games known to both members of the couple.

Gisèle Pelicot says she is a “totally destroyed woman” and that abusers should be “ashamed”

Over the past 10 weeks, the court has considered charges against 47 defendants. Joseph C., a 69-year-old retiree, who visited the couple in June 2020, testified in court on Monday. He admitted that he went to the couple’s residence, but was unable to have sexual intercourse with the unconscious woman. “It was difficult to get an erection,” he said, adding that he stayed in the room for 10 minutes and then left. “If I had known what he was doing to his wife, I would have reported him. “This is atrocious,” he assured the judges.