Two defendants in a mass rape trial that has shocked France on Wednesday reluctantly admitted they had raped a man’s heavily sedated wife as they had not sought her consent.

The main defendant in the case, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot, has confessed to administering sedatives to his wife to rape her and inviting strangers to join in the sexual abuse from 2011 to 2020.

Another 49 men have also been charged with rape or attempted rape of his wife Gisele Pelicot.

The hearings began in early September in the southern city of Avignon.

Gisele Pelicot, who is also 71 and has since divorced her husband, requested the case be heard in public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

In court on Wednesday, the latest of the defendants, 43-year-old Husamettin D., was at first not prepared to accept the charges against him.

He recounted how Dominique Pelicot had invited him over after they met online in June 2019.

Husamettin D. said Dominique Pelicot told him his wife was next to him as they communicated via chat.

He added that he had received a message that read: “I am indeed his wife, and I agree to welcome you.”

Husamettin D. headed over to their home in the small town of Mazan that same evening, where he was led into the main bedroom.

“I started foreplay, I saw she didn’t react. I said, ‘She’s dead, your wife.’ (Dominique Pelicot) said, ‘No, you’re imagining it.’ He penetrated her and she lifted up her head a little,” Husamettin D. said.

The defendant added that they continued for at least half an hour, until he clearly heard Gisele Pelicot snoring. He then decided to leave, he said.

But he added: “I’m not a rapist, that’s too much for me to bear. It’s her husband. I never thought that guy could do that to his own wife.”

Reminded of the definition of rape by one of the judges, an act committed “through violence, constraint, threat or surprise”, Husamettin D. however conceded.

“Now I admit it was rape,” he said.

Mathieu D., 53, accepted the charges against him.

He said that Dominique Pelicot had told him his wife “would have been put to sleep by him administering her drugs” so that the couple could “later watch the videos together”.

He said he did not have the impression he was committing rape at the time, but later “realised” after being arrested that Gisele Pelicot had not given her consent.

Dominique Pelicot meticulously documented the abuse, with his pictures and videos later allowing investigators to identify dozens of suspects.

Police discovered he had been abusing his wife for almost a decade after he was detained in 2020 for filming up women’s skirts, or “upskirting”, in a local supermarket.

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