Topics: Crime, News, World News
Warning: this article discusses rape and sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
After Dominique Pelicot spoke in court today for the first time since being accused of hiring over 50 men to rape his unconscious wife Gisèle, the couple's heartbroken daughter Caroline yelled four chilling words at her father, branding him a 'liar'.
Dominique primarily stands accused of having drugged his now ex-wife and mother-of-three Gisèle on several occasions, before inviting a hoard of strangers to rape her sleeping body.
He was apprehended earlier this year after French authorities discovered records of the heinous assaults inside the Pelicot property, indicating that Dominique had filmed every stomach-wrenching interaction.
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Fifty other men - with ages ranging between 26 and 74 and a mix of professions, including a fire officer and a journalist - stand accused of having abused Gisèle between 2011 and 2020.
It has been established that her husband drugged her with a mix of sedatives and anti-anxiety medication before inviting these strangers to their Mazan, Provence home via chatroom.
The last two months of the hearing have included countless men denying rape accusations, with some claiming to have had no knowledge of the drugging, and others alleging that Gisèle had consented to the abuse.
More also insisted they believed they were joining in on an organised sex game between the married couple.
Today, however, Dominique spoke in court for the first time since his arrest.
His daughter's outburst came as Gisèle's lawyer began interrogating the Frenchman about files which were found by police on his home computer, some of which showed his daughter in the nude.
"I never touched her," he claimed.
Dominique continued: "I can tell her, looking at her straight in the eye, that I never touched her."
Addressing his daughter directly, he insisted, 'Caroline, I never touched you', to which she responded by yelling across the room: "You are lying. I am sick of your lies. You're alone in your lies, you will die lying."
Dominique then added, 'In one of [the pictures] I don't even recognise the background', to which Caroline yelled back, 'It's my house!'.
