Co-accused in French rape trial says he is 'a criminal'

A man who learned to drug and rape his own wife from the Frenchman who admitted he recruited scores of strangers to sexually assault his partner, said that he deserved to be harshly punished.

"I'm in jail and I deserve it," the 63-year-old told the court in Avignon where the mass rape trial that has shocked France is being held.

"What I did is appalling. I'm a criminal and a rapist," said the man who was supplied with tranquillisers by Dominique Pelicot.

Mr Pelicot, 71, has admitted slipping his then wife Gisele, 71, sedatives to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her for nearly a decade.

"What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment," said his co-defendant named only as Jean-Pierre M.

Jean-Pierre M is the only one not accused of abusing Ms Pelicot.

Forty-nine other co-defendants are charged with taking part in the abuse, which lasted from 2011 to 2020.

Instead, he has been charged with raping his own wife and letting her be raped by Mr Pelicot after they met online.

Ms Pelicot, who is now divorced from her husband, has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Despite this move, she said she has felt humiliated during her husband's trial, accusing some defence lawyers of claiming she was complicit in the abuse.

"Since setting foot in this courtroom I have felt humiliated," she said at the trial of her former husband and 50 other men for rape.

"I'm being called an alcoholic, and someone who gets intoxicated to the point of becoming Mr Pelicot's accomplice," she said.

"I was in a comatose state and the videos that will be shown will prove this.

"I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr Pelicot or those other men" who are also on trial, she said, accusing them of giving the impression that she was "the guilty party and those 50 men victims".

Ms Pelicot said she was reacting to remarks by Paul-Roger Gontard, one of the lawyers for the defence, who told the court that "there's rape and there's rape" in a possible attempt to back up some of the men's claim that they assumed they were participating in a libertine couple's sex game.

"No, there are no different types of rape," she said.

"Rape is rape."

The lawyer subsequently apologised to her, saying he had wanted to distinguish the legal definition of rape from the "media" definition.

"I am sorry that these remarks hurt and shocked you," he said.

'I love my wife'

Meanwhile, the co-accused man told the court that he had been abused by his father as a child.

"My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence," he told the court.

"We experienced terrible things from my father, sexual abuse."

He described being forced to perform oral sex on his father so that he and his sister could go fishing with him.

He said when his sister cried, he agreed to do it.

"I was used to it," he said.

"My mother tried to protect us, but she drank," he added.

The co-defendant said he had a "happy life" with his wife after meeting her aged 33. She too had told the court last week it was a happy marriage.

"I love my wife," he said.

Jean-Pierre M is accused of raping or attempting to rape his wife 12 times, with Mr Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of the rapes.

He lived some 50 kilometres away from the Pelicot's home where the main defendant is accused of repeatedly abusing his own wife in the southern town of Mazan.

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