Dominique Pelicot: The man who arranged the mass rape of his wife
On 12th September 2020, a security guard approached a man at an E.Leclerc supermarket in Carpentras, France. The man's name was Dominique Pelicot. He was caught upskirting women using his mobile phone and subsequently arrested by police.
As part of the investigation, he underwent a psychiatric assessment with Dr Laurent Layet. During the evaluation, Dr Layet was concerned by Pelicot’s casual attitude towards the crime and suggested that police investigate further. But nothing could have prepared the world for what was about to be exposed.
Crime+Investigation examines Pelicot's background, the crimes he orchestrated over nearly a decade, and the trial that exposed them to the world
Who is Dominique Pelicot?
Dominique Pelicot was born in 1952 in Quincy-sous-Sénart, near Paris. Unlike his wife, Gisèle, he described having a difficult upbringing. According to Dominique, he suffered several traumatic experiences as a child. He claimed his father was abusive, that he was molested by a male nurse when he was nine and that he was forced to witness a gang rape as a teenager.
To make matters worse, he didn't have the refuge of school. He dropped out after two years of secondary education to start an apprenticeship as an electrician. By the time he was 13, he was working full-time and giving his wages to his father.
Later, during judicial proceedings, Dominique blamed his ‘perversions’ on his difficult upbringing.
Dominique Pelicot's marriage to Gisèle
Despite these challenges, Dominique became a confident and charismatic young man. He met Gisèle in 1971 when they were both 18 and working at Électricité de France. She had a very different background and described her childhood as ‘happy and stable’.
After their marriage in 1973, the couple moved to Paris and had three children.
Over the course of their marriage, Dominique and Gisèle had their ups and downs, including financial troubles and her affair with a colleague in the 1980s, but the children remember the dynamic being mostly happy. Their daughter Caroline described her father as supportive, while their eldest son David said that his friends saw Dominique as a role model.
In 2013, the couple retired to Mazan, a picturesque village in Provence. Here, Dominique continued to present himself as a family man, cycling, playing sport and getting involved in community life.
Leading a double life
However, outward appearances are often deceptive. Behind closed doors, Dominique was leading a double life, repeating the same patterns of abuse he said he experienced as a child.
In 2010, he was caught secretly filming under women's skirts at a supermarket near Paris and fined €100. During the investigation, police took a DNA sample that was later linked to the attempted rape of an estate agent in 1999. However, investigative failures meant the connection wasn't made until years later.
After moving to Mazan, Dominique became obsessed with pornography, something he later attributed to ‘sexual frustration’ in his marriage. Around the same time, he started chatting to men online about drugging and sedating women.
The crimes against Gisèle
Around 2011, Gisèle was prescribed Temesta, an anti-anxiety medication that made her drowsy. Dominique quickly realised he could exploit its sedative effects and started crushing the drug into her food and drink. Once she was unconscious, he would perform sex acts that she had previously refused.
The abuse escalated when Dominique started sharing photos and videos of Gisèle on the chat site Coco.fr. Specifically, on a forum called à son insu ('without her knowledge'), where users discussed performing sex acts on partners without their consent. It was here that Dominique eventually began soliciting men to rape his unconscious wife.
Over almost a decade, Dominique invited dozens of men to rape Gisèle. During this time, she suffered unexplained memory loss and anxiety, which her husband dismissed as she desperately searched for an explanation.
Arrest and conviction
After arresting Dominique for upskirting in 2020, investigators seized his digital devices and uncovered the true extent of his crimes.
They ultimately identified 92 rapes of Gisèle involving 72 different men between July 2011 and October 2020. It took investigators a further two years to identify and locate 52 of the men, two of whom died prior to the trial. The others have never been found.
During the trial, many of the men claimed that Dominique had told them Gisèle had consented to sex. However, the court rejected these arguments, and all 51 defendants (including Dominique) were found guilty of at least one offence.
Dominique, who admitted his crimes during the trial, was found guilty of aggravated rape and other charges. On 19th December 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
For more on the cases that have shaped the conversation around consent, sexual violence and justice, sign up to the Crime+Investigation newsletter. Every week, you'll receive the latest articles, episodes and more from C+I delivered straight to your inbox.
