In a case that has shocked France, a husband is due to go on trial on Monday for allegedly drugging his wife and inviting more than 80 strangers to his home to rape her for nearly a decade.
The Avignon court is also on trial for 50 men accused of abusing women.
Police say Dominique P. crushed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs and mixed them into his wife's dinner and wine at their home in Mazan, near Carpentras in Provence. The father of three also recruited men in online chat rooms to rape and sexually abuse his wife, where members fantasized about engaging in non-consenting sexual acts.
Investigators said the men were instructed not to smell any perfume or cigarette smoke, to avoid alerting their wives, and to leave if they moved even an arm.
He was arrested on November 2, 2020, after a security guard spotted him taking photos up women's skirts at a local supermarket. Police found a file labeled “abuse” on a USB drive connected to his computer, which contained 20,000 images and videos of his wife being raped nearly 100 times.
Since his arrest, the defendant “has always maintained his guilt”, his lawyer said, adding that he had said: “I put her to sleep, I seduced her and I filmed her.”
Health records show he obtained 450 sleeping pills in one year alone.
The 50 men on trial with him include local councillors, nurses, journalists, former police officers, prison officers, soldiers, firefighters and civil servants, many of whom lived in and around Mazan, a town of about 6,000 people. Their ages at the time of their arrest ranged from 26 to 73.
Several of the defendants denied the allegations and accused Dominic P. of deceiving them, telling police they had no idea he did not want the woman he married in 1973 as a partner. Investigators were unable to identify and trace more than 30 other men who were on the docket.
Investigators said the woman was shocked to learn of the abuse and had no recollection of being raped, adding that she had been drugged to the point of being “near a coma.”
“She woke up one morning in a panic, with a new hairstyle and not understanding how this was possible. She went to the hairdresser, who told her she had been to the hairdresser the day before,” said her lawyer, Stephane Babonneau.
Babonneau said his client, now divorced, believed she had an illness no one could explain and had visited multiple doctors, always accompanied by her husband, who insisted her symptoms were caused by fatigue after caring for their grandchildren. Her three children and other relatives suspected she had Alzheimer's.
Dominique P. is also suspected of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old real estate agent in Paris in 1991. Sophie Narmes was drugged, raped and stabbed in the chest. Another 19-year-old real estate agent was attacked in similar circumstances but fought back and escaped. Police said DNA taken from her blood at the scene matched the suspect's profile.
The trial in Avignon is expected to last four months. Dominique P., 71, and the 50 other defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of rape.
