In the sensational rape trial in Avignon, France, the testimony of the main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, has been postponed. The 71-year-old was admitted to hospital on Tuesday, his lawyer said.
Presiding Judge Roger Arata ordered a forensic medical report. Pelicot had left the hearing early the day before. According to his lawyer, he was suffering from stomach pain.
Main defendant confesses
Attorney Béatrice Zavarro rejected suggestions that Pelicot wanted to avoid the trial. “He always said he would be there and wanted to testify,” she said of her client, who confessed during the investigation.
The judge promised to suspend the trial “until his condition improves.” His ex-wife’s lawyers agreed. Neither 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot nor her children wanted to testify in the defendant’s absence.
The Frenchman, who drugged his wife with sleeping pills for years and offered to rape strangers, was due to testify in court for the first time on Tuesday.
“Egocentric and manipulative”
The day before, experts had said he was “self-centered” and “manipulative.” He confessed to abusing his now divorced wife Gisèle with strangers without her knowledge. This had become a kind of addiction, he explained to investigators.
Gisèle Pelicot described in detail in court last week how she suffered from unexplained memory problems and gynecological problems for years before she discovered how her husband was abusing her.
This was discovered when her husband was targeted by the judiciary for another crime and investigators came across about 4,000 photos and videos of the apparently unconscious woman being raped.
Source: Krone
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