The Monster of Avignon’s daughter screamed he would ‘die like a dog’ after the rapist maintained he had never abused her, in his final statement in the trial that has shocked the world.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted drugging his wife of 50 years Gisele with powerful sedatives and inviting dozens of strangers he met on the internet to rape her.
But this morning he continued to deny drugging his daughter Caroline when aged 20 and posing her semi-naked on a bed in lingerie and taking photographs of her – images that were found years later on his computer.
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].’
However, in an angry outburst his daughter Caroline Darian shouted: ‘I’ll never see you again! You’ll die alone like a dog!’
Under questioning from his lawyer Maître Zavarro, Pelicot maintained that he had not abused his daughter.
He said: ‘Even if she no longer loves me, I know what I did and I know what I did not do.
‘To tell me to die like a dog does not change my feelings for her.’
But he added: ‘If I did take those pictures [of Caroline drugged and semi-naked] then I don’t remember taking them.’
Pelicot admitted to the court that he was a sex addict and he described the practice of drugging women as ‘s***’.
The principal suspect completed his final statement this morning.
Lawyers for Madame Pelicot will later make their closing statements.
Yesterday, Ms Pelicot took the opportunity today to condemn what she called the ‘macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape’ after hearing ‘a lot of whispered, unacceptable things’ about the trial.
‘I knew what I was going to be exposed to by refusing to go to a closed hearing,’ she told the court in southeastern France this morning.
‘Obviously, I recognise that I am feeling tired today. I have been omnipresent. I find it very difficult when people say that it is practically commonplace to have raped Madame Pelicot.’
The courtroom in southeast France was filled as Ms Pelicot reflected on the impact of a campaign of abuse spanning a decade, in which she was raped and abused by her husband and dozens of other men while unconscious.
The trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-accused – described by Caroline Darian as the France’s ‘worst sex case for 20 years – is expected to conclude at the end of December.
The case continues.
