French prosecutors have announced that Dominique Pericot faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for drugging and raping his wife, Gisele, and inviting at least 70 strangers to rape and abuse her over a 10-year period. was sentenced.
Assistant State Attorney Laure Chabot said the sentence was “long at the same time, but not long enough given the gravity of what was committed and repeated.”
“His search for pleasure was reflected in his desire to subjugate his wife, to humiliate and even degrade the woman he cherished most in the world,” Chabot told the Avignon courtroom. He has been on trial since September.
Dominic Perico has admitted to the charges. Most of the others admitted to abusing Gisele Perico but denied raping her, suggesting they thought they were taking part in the couple's fantasies.
Thirty-three lawyers specifically complained that their clients were acting with disregard for their responsibilities.
On the 50th day of marathon hearings, lead prosecutor Jean-François Mayet said the case had “shaken our society in terms of our relationships with others.”
“This does not mean a conviction or an acquittal, but a fundamental change in the relationship between men and women.”
Gisele Perico became an international feminist icon after waiving her anonymity to hold a hearing and allow the release of a video of her husband's rape and abuse while he was unconscious. She said she hoped the trial would change society's macho attitudes towards the sexual abuse of women.
“I'm very emotional,” she said Monday, as she entered the courtroom to the daily applause.
Defendant Chabot began his summary for sentencing by saying at the hearing: “It is clear that Mrs. Perico was not in a normal state of consciousness. She was in a coma, more akin to a coma than sleep. The reaction of the comatose subject did not appear to deter the participants.”
The court heard on Wednesday how Dominic Perico, 72, obtained a total of 700 tablets of the tranquilizer Temesta. It is often prescribed by your local GP as an anti-anxiety medication and treatment for sleep disorders.
“The risks were considerable. [Gisèle] He could have died,” Chabot said.
Chabot added that Perico's arrest was largely due to a security guard stopping four women from filming up their skirts at a Leclerc supermarket in Carpentras in September 2020 and taking away their mobile phones. Ta. It contained 300 photographs and films showing the abuse of his wife. Police found a total of 20,000 videos and photos on mobile phones and hard drives at the rented house in Mazan where the couple had lived for more than a decade after their retirement.
At the beginning of the hearing, the court was told that Perricot had continued to invite men to rape his wife via online chat rooms. son insu He was interviewed by the police in September (without his knowledge) and released, before being detained two months later in December. Three times during this period, the men allegedly raped his wife, and he filmed the abuse.
Asked last week why he continued, Dominic Perico said: I knew it was over, so I went ahead with my word. ”
“A picture speaks a thousand words,” Chabot said Monday.
Gisele Perico suspected that she might have been drunk, dissolute, complicit in her own abuse, or, according to one defense attorney, under the influence of her husband. She told how she was faced with suspicions about her identity, which she said clearly didn't know anything about her. He criticized the abuse and attempts to suggest that she had done so.
“I only found what I was looking for, there was no reason.” [for her] To see. Should we add to the trauma of betrayal the guilt of not seeing anything? ” she said.
Chabot said it was “reductive” to reduce Pericot to a man with two faces, adding: “I could have declared my love for Gisele Pericotte and said I greatly admired her, but still… He does not suffer from a mental illness and is therefore fully responsible.”
It added that his criminal risk was judged to be “high” due to his “lack of sufficient self-reflection, lack of empathy, and psychologically rigid and cold relationships”. We must question his sincerity. ”
After seeking the maximum prison sentence for Dominic Perico, prosecutors also sentenced other defendants, ranging in age from 26 to 74, to prison. Almost all of them are charged with aggravating the situation and raping Gisele Perico as part of their group.
Chabot noted that none of the 50 defendants had direct contact with Gisele Perico before they allegedly abused her while she was unconscious, and none sought her consent. . He added that the claim that Gisele Perico somehow gave “tacit consent” or that her husband gave consent on her behalf is impermissible.
“She hasn't said anything that she agrees with, so we can't say it's going to be 2024. That's a different era…The lack of consent cannot be ignored.”
Giselle Perico told the court she believed she may have been raped up to 200 times between 2011 and 2020 at her home and her daughter's outhouse.
The couple's three children, David, Caroline and Florian, appeared in court last week to give statements. Caroline believes that she too was drugged and abused after photos of her father sleeping were found in files on his computer, and that her father was lying when he denied touching her. he accused angrily. “You will die alone like a dog,” she cried through tears.
The 11th week of the trial will continue until December 20, when a panel of judges will make a decision, and prosecutors will continue to seek sentences for each defendant over the next three days. Afterwards, Dominic Perico's lawyer, Beatriz Zabarro, will begin summarizing the proceedings.
