In a case that has shocked the nation, a French retired is accused of seeking the help of numerous strangers on the internet to rape his wife after he drugged her unconscious. He goes on trial on Monday.
Horrifying rape case from France
In the southern city of Avignon, fifty other men are standing trial with the primary suspect, a seventy-one-year-old former worker at EDF, the electricity company of France.
They are accused of sexually abusing the victim, who was allegedly so severely drugged that her lawyers claim she was unaware of the abuse.
Antoine Camus, one of the woman’s lawyers, described the trial as “a horrible ordeal” for the now-70-year-old, anonymous client.
He informed AFP that his client had “no recollection” of the inhumane acts, which she just learned about in 2020. “For the first time, long after the fact, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he said.
Camus stated that although the woman had the option to request a closed-door trial, she chose not to do so because “her attackers would have wanted” that to happen.
“She is completely determined to face them and her husband with whom she lived for 50 years but whom she knew nothing about, as she discovered at 68,”the lawyer stated.
When a security guard discovered the defendant Dominique P. secretly recording under the skirts of three women in a shopping center in September 2020, the police launched an investigation.
Police added that after looking through his computer, they discovered thousands of images and videos of his wife, who was primarily in the fetal position and clearly unconscious.
The pictures are said to depict numerous incidents of sexual assault at the couple’s home in Mazan, a village with only 6,000 residents, which is located 33 kilometers (21 miles) from Avignon in Provence.
The Brutality involved
Investigators also discovered talks on a website called coco.fr, which the police have since shut down, where he invited strangers to his house so they could have sex with his wife.
A total of 92 rapes were recorded by the police, carried out by 72 individuals, 51 of whom had official identification.
Dominique P. acknowledged to investigators that he had given his wife strong tranquilizers, including the anxiety-lowering medication Temesta.
The abuse started in 2011, when the couple was living near Paris, and continued after they moved to Mazan two years later.
The suspect gave the men very clear instructions in order to prevent them from waking her awake when they abused her at night.
They had to undressed in the kitchen so they wouldn’t unintentionally leave clothes in the bedroom, and no aftershave or cigarette odor were allowed. They were instructed to warm their hands before touching her.
Prosecutors claim that the husband participated in the rapes, recorded them, and used derogatory language to urge the other men.
There was no money exchanged.
The accused rapists, who ranged in age from 21 to 68, included a journalist, a fire brigade officer, a forklift driver, and a business owner.
Some were family men, some were single, and some were married or divorced. Most only took part once, while some did so up to six times.
A Patriarch and a manipulator
Dominique P. revealed to investigators that they were all aware that his wife had been drugged without her permission, despite their defense that they were only assisting a libertine couple in fulfilling their sexual dreams.
The court will have to determine the extent to which they were aware of the circumstances surrounding their sexual encounter with the woman, whose condition, according to an expert, “was closer to a coma than to sleep.”
Only three guys fled the house immediately after they arrived, according to her husband’s statement to the investigators, while the other men continued to have sex with his wife.
According to Beatrice Zavarro, Dominique P.’s lawyer, he is prepared to confront “his family and his wife” after claiming that he was himself sexually assaulted by a male nurse when he was nine years old.
This might not be his final trial. In addition, he is accused of a 1991 murder and rape, both of which he denies, and a 1999 attempted rape, which he acknowledged following positive results from DNA testing.
According to sexual violence expert Veronique Le Goaziou, “there is no such thing as a typical rapist profile,” as she told AFP.
When it comes to Dominque P., “many people will say he is crazy,” she stated. But there’s no guarantee of it. A very small percentage of rapists receive a legitimate mental health diagnosis.”
According to psychiatric assessments conducted during the inquiry, Dominique P. used his wife as “bait” and was described as “a patriarch” and “a manipulator”.