A trial is underway in Avignon, France, on Monday, where a 71-year-old husband, Dominique P., is accused of allowing dozens of men to rape his wife, who was drugged and unconscious, over a period of 10 years.
The victim, who is now 72 years old, was present in court, supported by her three children.
Her lawyers say she has no recollection of the abuse and only discovered it in 2020. The trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her, said Antoine Camus, one of her lawyers.
“For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he told AFP.
Prosecutors allege that Dominique P. recruited strangers online on a site called coco.fr, since shut down by police, and invited them to their home to rape his wife, who was visibly unconscious and mostly in the fetal position.
Investigators found hundreds of pictures and videos on his computer, showing dozens of rapes in their home in Mazan. Police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom were identified.
The accused rapists, aged between 26 and 74, include a forklift driver, a fire brigade officer, a company boss, and a journalist. Some participated multiple times, while others left quickly after arriving.
Police began to investigate the defendant Dominique P. in September 2020 when he was caught by a security guard secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
He admitted to investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquilisers, especially Temesta, an anxiety-reducing drug.
The husband took part in the rapes, filmed them and encouraged the other men using degrading language, according to prosecutors.
The accused rapists included a forklift driver, a fire brigade officer, a company boss and a journalist.
Some were single, others married or divorced, and some were family men. Most participated just once, but some took part up to six times.
The defense argues that the men thought they were participating in a libertine couple’s fantasies, but prosecutors say all were aware that the wife had been drugged without her knowledge.
An expert said her state “was closer to a coma than to sleep”.
Her husband told prosecutors that only three men left the house quickly after arriving, while all others proceeded to have intercourse with his wife.
Dominique P., who said he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine, is ready to face “his family and his wife”, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told AFP.
This trial may not be his last. He has also been charged with a 1991 murder and rape, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, to which he admitted after DNA testing
Experts said the man does not appear to be mentally ill, however in documents seen by AFP, they said he had a need to feel “all-powerful” over the female body.
The trial is expected to last until December 20.