When Gisèle Pelicot was first shown a selection of images of herself lying unconscious in her bed, dressed in underwear she didn’t own and being raped by strangers, she didn’t recognise herself. 

The photographs were just a handful out of thousands captured over a decade, showing the 73-year-old being violated by at least 70 men who her husband, Dominique, had invited into their home. 

It wasn’t until hours later that Gisèle could finally utter the words to a friend, about the father of her children who had spent years lacing her food and drink with sedatives and muscle relaxants to make her comatose.

‘Dominique raped me and had me raped.’

It was a crime too unbelievable for the life partner she otherwise described as ‘great guy’, who was always kind and thoughtful, and who she fell in love with at first sight when they were 18.

For Dr Paul Bensussan, the French psychiatrist and forensic expert who was instructed to evaluate Dominique in 2022, it is the disjunction between the 73-year-old’s ordinary facade and his horrific actions that is so chilling.

‘Dominique Pelicot’s profile is striking first and foremost for its apparent normality, which offers a stark contrast to the extraordinary nature of the acts that led to his conviction — to my knowledge, unprecedented in the history of contemporary sexual crimes,’ he told the Daily Mail.

But the singular thing Dr Bensussan found most staggering about the retired electrician and real-estate agent was his ‘astonishing’ number of paraphilias — a more contemporary, but less well-understood, term for what was once called ‘sexual deviance’.

‘He is, in effect, a kind of “polymorphous pervert”, embodying a significant number of paraphilias,’ Dr Bensussan said. 

Dominique Pelicot received the maximum sentence of 20 years in jail for committing and orchestrating the mass rapes of his now former wife Gisèle

Dominique spent a decade lacing Gisèle’s food and drink with sedatives and muscle relaxants before allowing at least 70 men to rape her

According to Dr Bensussan, who has been a psychiatric expert for the Versailles Court of Appeal since 1996, Dominique’s extensive list of fetishes includes voyeurism, exhibitionism, somnophilia (arousal derived from sexual intercourse with a sleeping woman, also known as ‘Sleeping Beauty syndrome’), candaulism, sexual sadism, as well as paedophilic fantasies.

‘He is free of any other mental pathology, illustrating the classic adage in forensic psychiatry,’ the renowned psychiatrist, author and lecturer said, referring to the maxim: ‘The madness of an act does not make the perpetrator mad.’

One of the facets of Dominique’s personality that first attracted Gisèle — leading to 49 years of happy marriage  — were his family values, the same as hers. ‘We get along well, which is why we’re still together,’ she told police officer Laurent Perret in November 2020, who first showed her the photos of her being raped.

‘Do you think this is plausible?’ he asked, to which Gisele, crying, responded: ‘It’s not possible.’

It is precisely the contrast between Dominique’s facade of normality and his inner urges that now gives those around him — Gisèle and their three children, David, Caroline and Florian — the feeling that they never truly knew him, despite decades of living together, Dr Bensussan said.

‘This contrast is the most striking manifestation of a defence mechanism known as “splitting”. Two completely incompatible personalities can coexist thanks to this splitting mechanism, without anyone, including those closest to him, suspecting such a duality.

‘Dominique Pelicot embodied a complex mix of personalities: a husband deeply in love with his wife (50 years of marriage), an exemplary family man, the quintessential patriarch, a man cherished by his friends… but also a cold, utterly unempathetic man, consumed by unspeakable fantasies, and intensely egocentric.’

Following a three month trial that concluded in December 2024, 46 men were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault, and Dominique was handed the maximum jail sentence of 20 years.

The guilty — serving jail terms ranging from between three and 15 years — were firefighters, security guards and lorry drivers, and most of them hailed from a 30-mile radius of the Pelicots’ home in Mazan, the tiny, picturesque little Provençal town.

We now know that even when Dominique was already being investigated for upskirting women in September 2020, he continued his hideous ritual of violating Gisèle until October 22, before his re-arrest on November 2.

‘After the first search, Mr Pelicot likely didn’t fully grasp the danger he faced, even though he tried to destroy some evidence. Before the second search, he may have cultivated an illusion of invulnerability,’ Dr Bensussan said.

‘This is a crucial aspect of his personality: this imposing, self-assured, domineering man, who liked to control events and those around him, meticulous even in organising videos that would later constitute damning evidence, may have felt all-powerful, even invulnerable.’

He added that the ‘addictive’ nature of his ‘multiple paraphilias’ may have contributed to his reckless risk-taking. 

Dominique Pelicot portrayed an image of the perfect family man but hid the darkest of secrets

Dr Paul Bensussan is an expert witness accredited by the French Court of Cassation and the International Criminal Court in The Hague

Police found a file labelled ‘abuses’ on a USB drive connected to Dominique’s computer, that contained 20,000 images and videos of Gisèle being raped almost 100 times. 

He ritualistically solicited dozens of men to violate his wife on an anonymous online chatroom called Coco, specifically on its rape-fantasy forum called ‘without her knowledge’.

But the messages weren’t just about Gisèle, and another woman was also pictured in the images meticulously labelled on his computer: his 47-year-old daughter, Caroline Darian.

Photos of her sleeping — dressed in unfamiliar lingerie that could have belonged to her mother — were found in Dominique’s possession. 

‘These photos were accompanied by comments from Pelicot about his daughter’s anus, in terms of crudity all the more shocking given that the subject was his daughter,’ Dr Bensussan said, clarifying that the ‘obscene’ comments were sent to other men.

Since the trial, the relationship between mother and daughter has been strained, with Caroline accusing Gisèle of not believing her steadfast viewpoint that Dominique drugged and raped her too.

The pair have since reconnected, however, and Gisèle is committed to supporting her daughter as the 47-year-old seeks the truth. 

About whether Caroline’s instinct is correct, Dr Bensussan said we, and she, may never find out the truth from a man ‘who lies constantly’, but ‘the incestuous nature of the photos is at least symbolic’.

‘For his daughter, Caroline, this is a poison instilled in her mind for life: the poison of doubt, since she will never know if, as she fears, her father also abused her. 

‘I haven’t had direct contact with her, but I think this doubt is now bordering on conviction, making Caroline a victim of her father, at least psychologically.’

He continued: ‘I certainly wouldn’t speak of “proof”, but rather of elements, or a body of evidence: and it is precisely this lack of proof that makes the situation so difficult and cruel for Caroline. 

‘She cannot, in fact, give any credence to her father’s denials, and it is only within herself that she will find, or choose, the answer to this question that torments her.’

Dominique Pelicot is a ‘polymorphous pervert’, according to Dr Paul Bensussan 

Following everything that has come to light about Dominique, ‘some now believe him capable of anything,’ said the psychiatrist, ‘including the murder of Sophie Narme, for which he is currently under investigation in a cold case dating back to 1991, or the attempted rape committed a few years later.’

More than 20 years before the rapes for which he has now been jailed — in 1999 — Dominique is accused of attempting to rape a 23-year-old estate agent, known by the pseudonym Marion, on the outskirts of Paris.

The case had never been solved, but Marion accused a man of tying her hands behind her back and covering her mouth with a cloth soaked in a sedative substance while she was giving him a tour of an apartment.

As he removed her clothes, she fought back and ran into a closet, remaining locked inside until the attacker finally left.

While Dominique initially denied any knowledge of the crime, when police told him they found his DNA on Marion’s shoe in 2022, he admitted: ‘It is indeed me.’

He insisted that it was his decision not to rape Marion because he and Caroline were the same age at the time. ‘I had a block thinking that it could be my daughter,’ he said.

Now, he is being investigated for an older but similar unsolved case, the 1991 rape and murder of another young estate agent, Sophie Narme, who was strangled to death after showing a man a property in Paris.

There was no DNA and police mishandled the case, losing evidence, but the smell of ether lingered in the apartment.

Dominique denied being involved but has been indicted for both crimes.

‘It is true that the similarities between these two unsolved cases are disturbing, with identical circumstances: a young real estate agent murdered, another victim of attempted rape, a man in a hurry to view a property, using an assumed name, an ether gag, restraint with ropes, and an impressive brutality in the attack,’ Dr Bensussan said.

‘Two subtypes are distinguished among sex offenders: the “angry”, characterised by impulsiveness and a needless relentlessness towards the victim, and the “sadistic”, colder and more meticulous, exhibiting behaviour based on power and control over the victim. 

‘In cases of repeated offenses, these sadistic offenders often display consistent patterns or similarities from one crime to another.’

Dr Bensussan is an expert witness accredited by the French Court of Cassation and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. 

Because he has been appointed again by the investigating magistrate for the 1991 case, he couldn’t comment further.

Caroline Darian and David, the children of Gisèle Pelicot, pictured at the verdict of the mass rape trial on December 19, 2024

Gisèle has said she is determined to confront Dominique in prison to get answers to the remaining unknowns. 

As part of her psychological recovery, she’s committed to finding out the truth about whether he ever raped their daughter Caroline, or was responsible for what happened to Sophie Narme.

But Gisele’s unorthodox desire to speak with her former husband in prison has raised eyebrows. 

‘Some do not understand Gisèle Pelicot’s wish, even going so far as to question the existence of “coercive control”— a term so often misused that I remain very cautious about its application in a psycho-legal context,’ Dr Bensussan said.

‘Others — including professionals, whom I will not name — explicitly raise the question of unconscious complicity between the spouses, unable to understand how, after what she has endured, Gisèle Pelicot still manages to humanise her husband, or at least not completely disengage from him.’

He said it was highly improbable that Dominique, who is facing another trial and who remains steadfast in his denials, would confess to his wife an act of incest he has always rejected. 

‘The consequences of such a confession would undoubtedly be disastrous, both in the eyes of the public and in the eyes of his wife. 

‘He might fear losing what little support or empathy he still receives. On the other hand, I believe him perfectly capable, should his wife visit him in prison, of expressing shame, remorse, and even undiminished love. 

‘She is and will remain, he says, the love of his life: I cannot imagine for a moment that he would deviate from this position, even though he will be hard-pressed to explain to his wife how he could have been so utterly devoid of empathy.’

Both Gisèle and Caroline have translated their unimaginable traumas into writing, with the women each penning respective books delving into the events that tore their family apart.

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides was the title of Gisèle’s January 2026 memoir — a tale of survival over years of blackouts, exhaustion and fears about a brain tumour, due to Dominique’s habit of drugging her. ‘I am the enemy of death,’ she proudly declares in its haunting pages.

‘Mum and I are becoming distant,’ Caroline wrote in December, 2020, in a journal that would later be published as her own 2025 memoir, I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again.

‘It’s inconceivable for her that I, too, might have been one of my father’s victims,’ she wrote, insisting she is her father’s ‘forgotten victim’. 

Three months after Dominique was sentenced, she filed a new police complaint and on the same day, released her account of the mass rape trial, entitled So That We Remember.

In an autobiography written nine years before his arrest, Dominique also recounted his own disturbing childhood memories of trauma and abuse, titling the work With My Own Troubles.

Referring to his father as an ‘authoritarian’, a ‘wolf,’ and a ‘predator lurking in the shadows’, he said he witnessed him not only attack his mother, but abuse a daughter adopted into the family — Nicole — to satisfy his sexual needs.

But Dr Bensussan warned that caution is warranted regarding Dominique’s claims, suggesting he may have dramatised, or even fabricated, certain events.

‘He told me about a night nurse who allegedly raped him for several days during his childhood, “in every way imaginable”, even saying he had “lived through hell”, while his brother Joël claims he only spent one night in the hospital and spoke only of a fleeting sexual encounter, described as “groping”, about which their father had gone to the clinic to protest,’ he said.

With the patriarch of the Pelicot family behind bars, Dr Bensussan is sceptical about whether the remaining members will ever be able to truly psychologically recover, but he’s decidedly not despairing about their individual futures.

‘The painful confusion in which Caroline finds herself, David and Florian’s doubts about their father’s potentially abusive behaviour toward their children, and the persistence of doubts about the possible incestuous nature of Dominique Pelicot’s father, illustrate, among many other points, the formidable and lasting consequences of abusive or incestuous behaviour,’ he said.

‘It is very difficult, even with well-conducted therapy, to be completely free of it. 

‘However, I believe in the concept of resilience, and the members of this family seem strong to me, capable of overcoming trauma for the sake of their own children. 

‘From this perspective, the revelation will undoubtedly have played a salutary role, despite an unprecedented media echo: nothing is more pernicious than hidden abuse or incest, in the complicit silence of an incestuous family.’