Charly A – one of 51 people accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot, the victim of a case in which her husband invited dozens of strangers to rape his wife – had planned to do the same with her biological mother.

Dominique Pélicot, 71, admitted to drugging his wife and then calling in men to rape her over many years. Photo: BBC.

Dominique Pélicot, 71, admitted to drugging his wife and then calling in men to rape her over many years. Photo: BBC .

Charly A – 30 years old – is one of 51 men on trial for raping Gisèle Pelicot, the Guardian reported.

Dominique Pelicot – Gisèle’s husband – crushed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs into her food, then invited dozens of men to his house to rape her while she was unconscious, for 9 years (2011-2020).

Dominique admitted the charges to the court: “I am a rapist.”

Deny

Charly A, a vineyard worker, is said to have driven to Pelicot’s home in the village of Mazan, Provence, France, six times between 2016 and 2020. The first incident occurred when Charly was 22 and Gisèle was 64.

Charly A and Dominique are also accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on the night of her 66th birthday.

Charly A denied the allegations.

“I never intended to rape,” he said, claiming that Dominique – who he met online – had invited him to her home and told Gisèle she would “pretend to be asleep”.

“I know there was one time when she was sleeping. In that case, she agreed. I didn’t want to rape her, I didn’t want to do something bad to that family,” Charly A said.

Suggest

Not only that, a video also revealed that Charly A and Dominique discussed a plan to drug and rape Charly A’s mother in a similar manner.

In the video, Charly A said he would provide an address and date to do this. Both confirmed that they had discussed this, but had not yet performed the act on Charly A’s mother.

Gisèle Pelicot stands among lawyers outside the court in Avignon, France, on September 17. Photo: ZUMA.

Gisèle Pelicot stands among lawyers outside the court in Avignon, France, on September 17. Photo: ZUMA .

The court asked Charly A why he had suggested this. He said he was afraid of Dominique, when Dominique asked Charly A if he would like to rape or witness the rape of anyone he knew. Charly A mentioned his mother “because she was the only woman who came to mind”, but never intended to do so and kept giving excuses.

“I made the excuse that my brother was at home and my mother had to take care of him, so he couldn’t come. Because I really didn’t want that,” Charly A said.

Dominique gave Charly A three sedative pills wrapped in foil, telling him to crush them and put them in his mother’s food. Charly A said he threw the pills out of the car window that night and never used them. Dominique denied this, saying that Charly A returned the pills to him.

When asked by the court if he was angry or hated his mother, Charly A said no: “I love my mother like any son loves his mother, there is no difference.”

Police tested a hair sample from Charly A’s mother and found very low levels of the sedative, consistent with occasional or one-time use of the drug. She said she had never used the drug. “I don’t know why it was in my system. I don’t understand,” she said.

A psychiatrist who interviewed Charly A said that “heavy pornography consumption” from his early teenage years shaped his objectifying thinking about women.

The psychiatrist added that Charly A’s frequent visits to Pelicot’s home in December (around Christmas) and January could be related to his holiday depression, as he had an unstable family, separation and divorce.

Several other accused men have also said they felt lonely at Christmas. A 63-year-old man accused of raping Gisèle has denied the crime, saying he was “lonely because Christmas is coming and I will be alone again”. A 37-year-old man accused of raping Gisèle on New Year’s Eve has also denied the crime, saying he had “nothing to do” because his brother’s family had not invited him to their New Year’s Eve party.

The trial will continue until December 20.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist icon after agreeing to a public trial to raise awareness about the use of drugs and tranquilizers to rape women. “We should not be ashamed, they should be,” she said.