Featured Image Credit: Arnold Jerocki/Getty
Topics: Crime, France, News, Gisele Pelicot
Callum Jones
Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter has revealed why they are no longer on speaking terms after her father was found guilty of aggravated rape.
It emerged that Gisèle was sedated against her will and raped numerous times by her now ex-husband Dominique Pelicot over a near-decade period.
He is said to have inserted sleeping pills and other drugs into her food, and allegedly spoke to men online to invite them into their home to rape her unconscious body; crimes of which he would record and store on a hard drive labelled 'abuse'.
Pelicot - whose crimes were discovered after he was arrested for upskirting in a supermarket - admitted to knocking his wife of 50 years out with drugs.
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He was also found guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, and taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law.
Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
A panel of five judges in France delivered the verdicts in December last year for the dozens men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle in a historic case that has shaken the entire globe.
Yet Darian told the judge at the time: "I'm a forgotten victim in this case."
Earlier this year, it was revealed she was also pressing ahead with charges against her father, including accusing him of drugging and raping her.
"I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse. But I don't have any evidence," she told the BBC.
Pelicot has denied the claims made by his daughter, while Darian claims her mother never believed her.
Darian has been speaking to The Telegraph recently, where she revealed she no longer speaks to Gisèle.
"My mother let go of my hand in that courtroom," she explained. "She abandoned me.
"For four years I accompanied my mum everywhere. I supported her without ever judging her. And it wasn’t always easy because she didn’t want to hear what I was telling her about Dominique.
"But in that courtroom, she was supposed to help me.
"And that I can never forgive her for. Never."
Darian added: "So that’s what things really look like behind the scenes.
"My mum was catapulted into the limelight; she became an icon. Meanwhile, there we were, back down on Earth, with all these unanswered questions – and we are damaged. Really damaged. And we are alone.
"That’s the truth, but people have no idea.
"We no longer have a father or a mother, today."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org