Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/CHRISTOPHE SIMON
Topics: Crime, France, True crime, World News, Gisele Pelicot
Liv Bridge
Topics: Crime, France, True crime, World News, Gisele Pelicot
Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter has revealed whether she will be visiting her convicted rapist father from prison.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars after he was found guilty of drugging and raping his wife Gisèle and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her for almost a decade.
The sick father is said to have inserted sleeping pills and other drugs into his wife's food, and the court heard how he invited men he'd met online to come to their home to rape her unconscious body – crimes which he recorded and stored on a hard drive labelled 'abuse'.
The 50 men accused of raping the 71-year-old woman also had their day in the Avignon courtroom, making up France's largest-ever rape trial in its history as they were convicted alongside Dominique for a total of more than 400 combined years in prison.
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Dominique 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.
However, his daughter told the judge at the time: "I'm a forgotten victim in this case."
Caroline has since said she believes her father drugged and sexually abused her too, but doesn't have any evidence to back up her claims.
She said her father denied the allegations, while her mom Gisèle never believed her.
Now, Caroline has written a book about the trauma her father's crimes have had on the family, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again: Turning our family trauma of Chemical Submission into a collective fight. She has also spoken out to The Telegraph about how she feels about it all today.
Caroline said the ordeal has driven a wedge between her and her mom - and understandably ruled out ever visiting Dominique in prison.
She said to the outlet: "Have you seen Silence of the Lambs? If we ever were face to face again, it would be exactly like that.
"My father is incapable of telling me what he’s done when it comes to the issue of incest. Mentally, he just cannot do it.”
Her position is different to that of her mom, who reportedly recently told her she was going to visit her ex-husband in jail.
"Listen, if she wants to do that in order to close that chapter of her life, that’s up to her," Caroline said. "I think there is still love there.
"[B]ecause 50 years together doesn’t get erased just like that. And I guess she wants to see if there is any way Dominique is not the monster everyone thinks he is. So, I do respect her decision, just as I respect the trajectory she has chosen ever since we found out.”
However, while she says she respects her mom, Caroline said she can never 'forgive' her.
"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."
She 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