'Monster of Avignon' Dominique Pelicot's grovelling message to serial rape victim wife Gisele
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A serial rapist dubbed the “Monster of Avignon” who allowed dozens of men to assault his drugged wife spoke at his trial for the final time today. Dominique Pélicot, 71, begged his wife and family for forgiveness on the final day of testimony at the a three-and-a-half month “aggravated rape” hearing, before the jury retired to consider their verdict. During the trial Pélicot had confessed to inviting scores of men he met online to the family home near the city in the south of France to repeatedly rape and otherwise sexually assault his wife Gisèle Pélicot, 72.
On Monday morning he was given his last chance to speak at the trial in the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon. Turning his head in the direction of the mother of their three grown up children, who have been at the trial throughout, Pélicot, said: “I would like to start by saluting the courage of my ex-wife, for having to put up with the innuendo that she was complicit (in my crimes). I ask her, and the rest of my family, to please accept my apologies.”.
Referring to his arrest in 2020, and to spending the time since in a prison cell, on remand, Pélicot said: “I regret what I have done, making them suffer for four years. I ask them for forgiveness.” He also thanked the court for agreeing to allow him to remain seated on a special chair due to his poor health, which, Pélicot said, “could have been interpreted as a relaxed manner, but was not.”.
Turning to his female lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, who has described herself as “the devil’s advocate”, Pélicot, said: “She made sure I held on to the handrail. Collapsing would have been a sign of cowardice towards my family and an easy way for the accused to agree with them. So, I held on.”.
