A pensioner drugged his wife so she could be raped nearly 100 times by 72 men over the space of 10 years, a court has heard.
Gisele P, 72, has ‘no recollection’ of the ten years of abuse, which she discovered in 2020 after police found hundreds of images of her on her husband’s phone.
She was seen unconscious, mostly in a foetal position, in the pictures and videos alleged to show dozens of rapes at the couple’s home in Mazan, near Avignon, France.
They had moved to the village from Paris, two years after the abuse is believed to have started in 2011.
Dominque P. is alleged to have used an online forum to recruit strangers to visit their home, according to police who found chats on a site called coco.fr, which they have since shut down.
A forklift driver, fire brigade officer, company boss and a journalist are among the 51 other men on trial accused of participating in the 71-year-old’s scheme, in which no money changed hands.
Most of the mix of single, married and divorced men, aged between 26 and 74, are accused of raping her just once, while some took part up to six times.
Dominique P, who allegedly took part in the rapes himself, is also accused of filming them while encouraging men to use degrading language, prosecutors said.
In their defence, the men claim they were helping the couple live out their fantasies.
But Dominique P. admitted to investigators that he had drugged his wife with tranquilisers like anxiety-reducing drug Temesta without her consent.
One expert described Gisele’s state as ‘closer to a coma than to sleep’.
Just three men left promptly after arrival without having sex with his wife, Dominique P told prosecutors.
Police found the 71-year-old’s stash of images after a security guard caught him secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
The 71-year-old, who claims he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine, is ready to face ‘his family and his wife’, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said.
For Gisele, however, this trial will be a ‘horrible ordeal’ as it is the ‘first time she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years’, her lawyer said.
Gisele, now aged 72, could have opted for a trial behind closed doors, but ‘that’s what her attackers would have wanted’, Camus said.
But that hasn’t stopped her from waving her right to a trial behind closed doors, which she believes ‘her attackers would have wanted’, Camus said.
She will be supported by her three children, while present at the trial in Avignon, which is due to last until December 20.
Dominique P. has also been charged with murder and rape in 1991, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, which he admitted after DNA testing.
Experts, who said the man does not appear mentally ill, concluded that he had a need to feel ‘all-powerful’ over the female body, according to assessments included in court documents.
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