Daughter of French Man Who Arranged Rapes of Wife Recounts Being Shown Photos of Herself by Cops
Caroline Darian believes her father, Dominique Pelicot, drugged her in addition to her mother
A French man admitted to drugging his wife over the course of several years and inviting dozens of men to rape her. His daughter has since said that she believes she was drugged, too.
Caroline Darian is the daughter of Dominique, 71, and Gisèle Pelicot, 72. Dominique admitted in court to drugging his wife with sleeping pills from 2011 to 2020 before allowing men to sexually assault her while he often filmed the rapes, according to reports from The New York Times, U.K. paper The Times and CBS.
The outlets reported that after Dominique’s images were discovered, they found photos of a sleeping Darian in addition to the numerous photos and videos of Gisele being assaulted.
NYT reported that while testifying in court on Friday in Avignon, France, Darian revealed that police showed her photos that Dominique had taken of while she slept.
“I realized right away I was drugged in that photo,” Darian said, according to NYT, though she noted her father had not admitted to drugging her.
Both The Times and CBS reported that the photos of Darian were discovered in a computer folder labeled, “Around my daughter, naked.”
Dominique’s photos and videos were discovered in 2020 when police seized his phone cameras and other electronic devices after he had been accused of having filmed up the skirts of three women in supermarkets, the outlets previously reported.
Related: How Police Allegedly Caught Husband Accused of Drugging Wife and Inviting 83 Men to Rape Her
Currently, 51 suspects, including Dominique, are facing charges in connection with the case. The Times reported that authorities have alleged Gisèle was raped by 83 different men and was assaulted at least 92 times.
Approximately 20,000 videos and photographs documenting the abuse were allegedly found on his devices by police, NYT reported
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Darian wrote a book about the case in 2022 titled, And I Stopped Calling You Papa. As she testified in court, NYT reported that she is worried about what else might have happened while she believes she was drugged.
“What can you do for a person like me to heal?” she said, according to NYT. “To have a normal life of a woman, a normal sex life.”
The BBC reported that Gisèle recounted telling her children about the abuse, which she only learned of when police told her what they had found.
“I just wanted to disappear,” she said, according to the BBC. “But I had to tell my children their father was under arrest. I asked my son-in-law to stay next to my daughter when I told her that her father had raped me, and had me raped by others. She let out a howl, whose sound is still etched on my mind.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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