Serial rapist Dominique Pelicot is already likely to die behind bars after being sentenced to 20 years in prison for the campaign of abuse he and dozens of strangers waged against his wife Gisele.
But he could yet face another shameful trial as investigators believe the depraved 72-year-old may be responsible for the rape and murder of Sophie Narme, a real estate agent, in 1991.
Detectives are probing the cold case that bears a shocking resemblance to an attempted rape of 23-year-old real estate agent known as Marion in 1999. She fought her attacker off, and Pelicot’s DNA was later recovered at the scene – though he maintains he did not try to rape her.
It comes as psychologists who interviewed Pelicot explained his complex psychological issues, positing that sexual abuse he claimed to have experienced as a child likely ‘sharpened’ traits that led him to become the man who so heinously abused his own wife.
Dr Laurent Layet – one of the first doctors to interview with Pelicot following his arrest in 2020 for taking photos up women’s skirts in a shopping centre – said he encouraged authorities to further investigate the man whom he said showed ‘no signs of severe mental illness’.
Dr Layet declared that Pelicot exhibited ‘egomania, narcissistic fragility, emotional disorders… an abnormal sexual deviancy combining candaulism [exposing your female partner to others for sexual enjoyment], voyeurism and somnophilia.’
Pelicot is definitely not ‘mad’, and cannot chalk his crimes up to mental illness, the psychologist said.
But he added that the ‘Monster of Avignon’, as he has come to be known, is a misplaced moniker – claiming Pelicot had developed two completely distinct personalities.
Dr Layet told the BBC that he witnessed a ‘fissure’ in Pelicot’s psyche, explaining how he had developed two ‘water-tight parts… with no leakage between them. His split personality is very effective and very solid. We either have the ”normal Mr Pelicot” or the other Mr Pelicot at night, in the bedroom.’
France’s worst-ever sexual abuse case finally concluded yesterday after a months-long trial, with Pelicot and another 50 men tried and brought to justice.
During the trial, several psychologists who analysed Pelicot revealed chilling insights into the mind of the man.
He oversaw a near-decade-long campaign of abuse between 2011 and 2020 in which he systematically drugged his wife unconscious and invited dozens of strangers to their family home to rape her on camera.
A psychological report submitted to the court suggested Pelicot displayed a tendency towards ‘paraphilia’ – sexual arousal in atypical situations – and also ‘somnophilia’ – an attraction to unconscious partners.
This made him a ‘very caring and much-loved grandfather by day’ but ‘a rapist at night’, psychologist Bruno Daunizeau explained in the report.
The ‘two-faced personality’ of a ‘sex addict’ and ‘manipulative pervert’ meant Mr Pelicot acted like the split-personality character in ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, the Gothic horror novel by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.
‘During the day, you can be normal, and have another face at night,’ said Dr Daunizeau.
Marianne Douteau, another psychologist, told the court that Pelicot still felt his life could have carried on as normal, despite the crimes he has admitted to.
She agreed he had a ‘split personality’, and had inherited the temper of a violent father.
Ms Douteau said Pelicot ‘complains that this criminal case against him has destroyed his life.
‘He claims everything could have continued as before if he had not been arrested.’
Pelicot is said to have claimed: ‘Gisele would not have known anything, we would have continued to be happy.’
Dr Douteau added that Pelicot ‘has a two-sided personality – he is a patriarch but he is also irresponsible and manipulative. Behind closed doors he does not respect limits.’
Pelicot told detectives that he considered himself a ‘good husband’ to the woman he married in 1971 and had three children with.
He said he was ‘respectful of his wife’s desires and refusals’ to sex, but ‘also had fantasies about swinging’ and ‘got pleasure in seeing his wife undergo sexual acts that she normally refused’.
Dr Paul Bensussan said Pelicot had tried to justify his abuse of his wife by the abuse he himself suffered as a child, telling the court that he believed the defendant will always present a danger.
The doctor said: ‘Pelicot is a persistent liar… he has a split personality. Even if he says he acknowledges his crimes, he will remain a voyeur and exhibitionist.
‘I do not believe that this can be treated.
‘Sexual orientation is given for life, whether that sexuality is deviant or not. And the problem with perversion is that the doses must be increased.
‘The only cure is old age because this leads to physical decline… this is not a satisfactory treatment.’
Turning to Madame Pelicot and her children, Dr Bensussan said: ‘I will have to be a be a little crude and I apologise in advance to the civil parties [Madame Pelicot and her children].
‘Pelicot explained that she refused what he wanted (to have sex with other partners). But asleep she could refuse him nothing.
‘This is rape by order… (for him) it is as if she were the one who had soiled the family.’
Another psychologist who interviewed Pelicot in December 2020 a month and a half after he was taken into custody, told the court: ‘Pelicot said: ”My wife and I had a discussion about swinging but she didn’t agree so I drugged her”.’
Annabelle Montagne said Pelicot maintained he loved his wife, but she added: ‘He sees his partner as an object to satisfy his sexual and narcissistic needs. His wife is then a partial object and no longer an object of total love.’
Pelicot, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest in 2020, was considered too ill to give evidence on Monday, so will be cross-examined by prosecutors later in the week.
He was first arrested in September 2020 for filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in Carpentras.
His devices were searched, and police discovered he had meticulously catalogued thousands of photos and pornographic videos of women, including family members.
It was while in custody that Pelicot reported a hard drive, hidden under a printer, which contained a file called ‘Abuses’.
It classified the nickname and telephone numbers of attackers, together with thousands of videos and photos of Gisele Pelicot being raped between 2011 and 2020.
Pelicot moved his family from greater Paris in 1991 – the same year he is suspected of having raped and murdered real estate agent Sophie – and later set up his sordid sex ring.
He set up an online forum called ‘Without Her Knowing’ on the now defunct website coco.fr on which he put out a search for men willing to ‘abuse my sleeping wife’.
Pelicot sedated his wife by putting Temesta – a powerful anxiolytic – into her evening dinner, before inviting strangers to come and rape her for the camera.
Yesterday, the Monster of Avignon was slapped with a 20-year prison term by Judge Roger Arata after he pleaded guilty to drugging Gisele repeatedly for almost a decade to rape her and to offer up her unconscious body for sex.
Several abusers escaped justice, with police unable to identify more than 20 men involved in Gisele’s abuse.
But Arata handed down guilty sentences to another 50 men besides Pelicot.
In all, the court found 47 of the defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
Chaos erupted outside the courtroom with a large group of baying protesters gathered outside shouting ‘shame on you’ as the defendants emerged, hiding their faces behind masks and under hoods.
Rapists involved in the case included civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a municipal councillor and truck drivers.
