The youngest of 50 men accused of raping a French woman who was drugged by her husband first visited the house of horrors on the day his daughter was born, a court has heard.
Joan Kwai, 26, is giving evidence today along with six other men accused of rape – Andy Rodriguez, 37, Hugues Malago, 39, Husamettin Dogan, 43, Mathieu Dartus, 53, and Fabien Sotton, 39.
Judge Roger Arata ruled last week that the 50 accused will be divided up into four tranches and heard in groups of six to try and reduce numbers in court.
Retired electrician Dominique Pelicot, 71, is accused of drugging his unsuspecting wife Gisele, also 71, for almost ten years so the men could rape and abuse her.
Mrs Pelicot has become a symbol of rape victims in France and has bravely waived her anonymity for the trial which has grabbed headlines around the world.
Gisele Pelicot has become a symbol of rape victims in France and has bravely waived her anonymity for the trial
Dominique Pelicot, who has allegedly drugged and raped his wife Gisele Pelicot, appears during his trial with 50 co-accused at the courthouse in Avignon, France, September 17, 2024
Kwai, the first of the accused to give evidence today, was born in Guyana but moved to the Vacluse region of France as a teenager.
The father was only 23 when he was arrested at the army barracks where he was serving.
He first went to the house in November 2019, the day his daughter was born.
He then went back another time, and admits to having set off for a third visit, which Dominique Pelicot cancelled at the last minute.
In front of the investigators, he first stated that he had not asked himself the question of whether Mrs Pelicot had consented.
Then, confronted with the photos, he admitted that she was unconscious and that it was a rape.
At the beginning of the trial, he said he ‘recognised the facts, but not the intention’.
Fourteen of the men on trial have admitted their part in the horrific case, while the rest deny the charges insisting, they were ‘duped as part of a plot’ by the couple.
Eighteen men are in custody and as usual since the case began Mrs Pelicot was greeted by warm applause as she entered the court building in Avignon, southern France.
Gisele Pelicot (C) acknowledges applause by members of the public as she arrives at the courthouse of Avignon during the trial
While those on bail – who include a carpenter, builder, retired firefighter, council worker, prison officer and journalist – were met with boos and jeers.
Extra security has been drafted in for the trial after one of the accused jostled a French TV crew as they filmed him, and it needed a lawyer to step in and calm the situation.
The attacks took place in the couple’s rented home in the picturesque village of Mazan, 40 minutes away in the Provence countryside close to the iconic Mt Ventoux.
Pelicot was eventually arrested in September 2020 after security staff spotted him upskirting four women at a supermarket in Carpentras a few minutes from Mazan.
A search of his home revealed thousands of photos of his wife in a computer file marked ‘Abuse’ and prosecutors say he sedated his wife between 2011 and 2020 so that dozens of men could rape her.
In a separate case, Pelicot has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991
Dominique Pélicot is accused of recruiting men online to assault his wife repeatedly over 10 years
Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed on Mrs Pelicot by 82 men of whom 51 including her husband have been identified.
Pelicot is said to have sedated his wife by putting Temesta into her evening meal.
In a separate case, Pelicot has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991.
The former electrician – who is sitting in a wheelchair surrounded by prison guards for the hearing – has also admitted one rape in 1999, after DBNA testing linked him to the case.
Officials expect the case to last until December.
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