Dominique Pelicot, who drugged and raped his then spouse Gisèle and recruited dozens of males to abuse her over virtually a decade, has been questioned over two different assaults courting again to the Nineties.
The 72-year-old Frenchman, who was jailed for 20 years in December, is being investigated over the alleged rape and homicide of property agent Sophie Narme in Paris on 4 December 1991. He denies the offence.
Investigators additionally quizzed him in regards to the tried rape of one other younger property agent, recognized by the pseudonym Marion, in a suburb of the capital on 11 Might 1999.
Throughout his trial, Pelicot admitted to that offence after DNA proof taken from blood discovered on Marion’s shoe was linked to him.
Nevertheless, when he was requested about Sophie Narme throughout the identical trial, he mentioned he had “nothing to do” with the killing.
Investigators have beforehand pointed to similarities between the 2 instances.
Within the 1991 homicide, the sufferer was attacked by a person who used a false identify to e-book a viewing for an condominium. Detectives say Pelicot did the identical in 1999.
The scent of the anaesthetic drug ether was detected by police on the 1991 crime scene. Police say it was additionally used within the 1999 assault do subdue the sufferer.
The 2 instances have been grouped collectively in September 2022 and have been investigated by a staff which specialises in unsolved instances and serial crimes.
Pelicot was positioned underneath formal investigation in October 2022 over each crimes.
The criminal case against Pelicot and the 49 other men accused of raping Gisèle lasted for 3 months and was France’s largest ever rape trial.
By the point it ended, she had turn into a nationwide determine and was met by crowds of hundreds of people chanting her name exterior court docket.
Her choice to make the trial public has generated renewed conversations round rape, consent and gender violence in France.
