France – Dominique Pelico: “I never raped you” tells Caroline’s daughter

Dominique Pelic admitted today Tuesday (17.09.2024) before the Avignon court in that he is “rapist” and stated that his wife “was not worth” what he suffered for a decade. “I am a rapist like those in this Chamber. They know everything, they cannot claim otherwise,” said 71-year-old Dominique Pelico who has been accused of drugging his wife, Giselle, raping her and handing her over to dozens of men she found online to rape her inside their home in France. The defendant referred to his 50 co-defendants who are tried with him. After a week of absence for health reasons, Dominique Pelico returned to court in a gray suit, relying on a cane and sat on the stand. When the hearing continued, Pelico Béatrice Zavarro’s lawyer questioned her client. He asked him about his childhood and whether he had made “unbecoming gestures” toward his grandchildren. “ Never, ” he insisted. He took advantage of the presence of Caroline Darian, the daughter of Peliko, to ask him if he had “sed or raped” his daughter, who has accused him of saying that her father drugged her and photographed her secretly naked. “Caroline”, he told his daughter. I never drugged you or raped you. I can’t say that. I never did that.” “I am a rapist, as are all those in this Chamber” “I am a rapist as are those in this Chamber. They know everything, they cannot claim otherwise,” confessed 71-year-old Dominique Pelico to Avignon criminal court. The defendant referred to his 50 co-defendants who are tried with him. “I am guilty… I regret what I did. I ask your forgiveness, although it is unforgivable.” Dominique Pelico testified, bursting into tears every now and then, that he had a difficult childhood and that he himself was a rape victim. My wife “did not deserve this,” she added. “I was very happy with her. It was the opposite of my mother, revolutionary. I was happy, I had three children, grandchildren, I never touched them.” “I’m sorry for what I did, I’m sorry,” he then said. Dominique Pelico made a flashback, crying, in two incidents of sexual violence that he says he lived. First, a rape by a nurse when he was 9 years old. Then, a second traumatic incident when he was apprenticed to a construction site, at age 14, and forced into sexual relations with a woman. “They accuse me of many programs. You’re not born a pervert, you are. No matter how strange, I never considered my wife an object.” His ex-wife and victim for years, Giselle, who was in the audience said according to the French media: “It’s hard to hear from Mr Peliko’s mouth what he just said. For 50 years, I lived with a man… I didn’t imagine for a second that he could proceed with these acts of rape.”