The Monster of Avignon’s daughter has spoken out for the first time since the conviction of her father in France‘s biggest-ever rape trial, issuing a damning verdict.
Caroline Darian remained a pillar by her mother’s side during the grotesque trial of Dominique Pelicot, 71, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping and organising the mass rape of his wife, Gisèle.
While his 50 co-defendants also receiving guilty verdicts, with sentences ranging from three to 15 years some suspended, for their part in France’s most notorious sex crimes trial.
However, although never admitted in court, the 46-year-old communication manager from Paris believes she too was subjected to sordid abuse by her father.
The majority of the horrific photos and videos found meticulously catalogued on Pelicot’s hard drives depicted various strangers abusing an unconscious Gisele.
But some showed Caroline, also sleeping, in various states of undress.
Speaking about the trial for the first time to the Guardian she described her horrors, saying: ‘I felt anger. They’re cowards [the men convicted of rape].’
Shockingly adding that: ‘I was looked at like a sex object during this trial by many of them.’
On Dominque’s computer equipment which was confiscated after his arrest, French authorities found a folder labelled ‘my naked daughter’.
Within this secret file there were two images of Caroline, then aged in her 30s, sleeping in beige underwear.
When showed this by the police, Darian claimed that she did not sleep in this position, that she has never seen that specific pair of underwear before and that she would never have gone to bed dressed like that.
Following on from this revelation she told the court that she was convinced that she too had probably been raped and abused by Dominique.
Though there was no direct evidence that married mother-of-one was sexually abused, she strongly believes she was drugged by her father and says she will never know for sure if she was also raped leaving her locked in ‘doubt and silence’ unable to ever know the truth.
‘I consider myself to be the forgotten victim of this trial,’ Caroline told the court.
‘Gisele was certainly raped. She was chemically subdued, of course. The only difference between Gisele and me is that for her, there is proof. For me, it’s an absolute tragedy.’
During the trial, Dominque continued to deny ever drugging or abusing his daughter and when in his final statement the 71-year-old said: ‘I would like to look my daughter straight in the eye and tell her that I did nothing [to her].’
She jumped up and shouted in an angry outburst: ‘I’ll never see you again! You’ll die alone like a dog!’
Caroline briefly checked into a psychiatric facility as her mental health spiralled amid the fallout of her father’s arrest.
She has also since launched a pressure group called ‘Don’t Send Me To Sleep,’ to raise awareness about ‘chemical submission.’
‘You can’t imagine the sadness and the loneliness,’ she recounted.
‘I’ve got a part of his DNA. And it’s difficult to be the daughter of the biggest sexual criminal for the past 10, 20, even 30 years, and at the same time be the daughter of an icon like my mum … I don’t know if it’s better to be the daughter of Gisèle or worse to be the daughter of Dominique Pelicot. I’ll have to live with that.’
Despite this she told the Guardian: ‘I’m really proud of my mum. She has opened the door. She has led the way for other victims of sexual violence.
She’s told them they’re not alone any more. That is strength. So to me she’s a hero … And she did it brilliantly.’
In a powerful 90-minute-long testimony before the court in Avignon, Gisele also opened up on how the discovery drove her to the brink of suicide and left her daughter in a psychiatric ward.
‘We had everything, we had a great life. I don’t understand how this could have happened.
‘I only wanted one thing and that was to disappear. I told myself: ‘I am going to get in my car with my dog and end it all’.
‘I had to tell my children that their father was in custody. I called my son-in-law and told my daughter and told them: ‘He raped me’. Then I heard my daughter screaming a deep cry that I cannot get out of my head.
‘When I told my sons about this, I don’t think they really understood. They withdrew.
‘[That] evening, the children rang all the time saying ‘don’t disappear’… they were worried I might die.’
Caroline herself recounted to the judge the moment she heard, from her own mother, exactly what kind of monster her father was.
‘Then my mother called me to say that there was a problem with my father. I imagine that he is in intensive care, that he is dying,’ she said.
‘But she tells me that my father has been drugging her for years so that strangers can rape her in her own bed.
‘She says she has seen photos of what happened to her and that the police want to show her videos of what happened.
‘I totally lost my foundations. Fortunately my husband [Pierre] was there and my six year old son too. We took him away so that he did not hear his mother’s screams.’
Detectives listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.
Of the 83 men involved in the campaign of abuse, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.
Many denied raping Gisèle Pélicot, saying they were manipulated by her then-husband or claiming they believed she was consenting.
