A MAN AMONG dozens accused of raping a Frenchwoman while she was unconscious at her husband’s instigation accepted the charges today, saying he did not think it was abuse but then noticed “something was wrong”.

The defendant, a 44-year-old supermarket employee and father of three, is among 50 men accused of participating in the mass rape over a decade of Gisele Pelicot, in a trial that has shocked France.

The woman’s then-husband Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging her into unconsciousness and inviting strangers to rape her.

The man, identified only as Lionel R., admitted in court that he had indeed raped Gisele Pelicot on 2 December, 2018, though he said that had not been his intention.

“Since I never obtained Mrs Pelicot’s consent, I have no choice but to accept the facts,” he told the court.

Lionel R. told the court that he had made contact on a libertine website with Dominique Pelicot, who suggested he have sex with his wife.

He described Pellicot’s proposal as “something a little out of the ordinary”.

Lionel R., who was active in the swinger scene at the time, said Pelicot’s explanations were “not very clear”, but he believed he was participating in a game.

“There was talk of medical drugs. Sometimes of her taking them, and sometimes of him administering them to her,” he said.

“I didn’t ask myself too many questions,” he added.

Pelicot sent him pictures of his wife naked in the couple’s garden, he said.

“I never imagined that she might not be part of this game. That was my first huge error,” Lionel R. said.

After arriving at the couple’s home he entered the bedroom where Gisele Pelicot was lying unconscious and penetrated her.

“I followed his directions, he became very pushy,” Lionel R. said of Dominique Pelicot.

“I’m not looking for excuses. I lost my bearings.”

At one point Gisele Pelicot began to move.

“He told me to leave the room, and that’s when I realised that something was wrong,” he said.

Lionel R., who spent 12 months in detention during the pre-trial investigation and is now divorced, said of Gisele Pelicot that he “cannot imagine the nightmare she went through and is still going through”.

His own life, he said, had “also been destroyed”.

Gisele Pelicot, who obtained a divorce in August, has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

The trial has horrified France, also because Dominique Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants include apparently ordinary men such as a fireman, a nurse and a journalist, many of them with families.

Seventeen are in custody, as is Pelicot himself, but 32 other defendants are attending as free men.

One co-defendant, still at large, is being tried in absentia.

- © AFP 2024