Man accused of raping Gisele Pelicot apologises after graphic images shown in court

A man accused of raping a French woman while she was drugged unconscious by her husband apologised after graphic images were shown in court.

Lionel Rodriguez, 44, a former supermarket employee and father of three, said he wrongly thought he was taking part in a libertine “game” and did not think it was abuse before noticing “something was wrong”.

The defendant is among 50 men accused of participating in the mass rape of Mrs Pelicot over a decade in a trial that has rocked France.

The woman’s then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71, admitted to drugging her into a comatose state and inviting strangers to rape her.

Mr Rodriguez confirmed in court on Thursday that he had indeed raped Mrs Pelicot on Dec 2 2018, though he said it had not been his intention.

“Since I never obtained Mrs Pelicot’s consent, I have no choice but to accept the facts,” he said.

He told the court that as a swinger, he was in search of new partners on a libertine website when Mr Pélicot suggested he have sex with his wife.

While Mr Pelicot’s explanations were “not very clear”, Mr Rodriguez said he believed he was participating in a game.

“There was talk of medical drugs. Sometimes of her taking them and sometimes of him administering them to her,” he said.

“I didn’t ask myself too many questions,” he added.

Mr Pélicot sent him pictures of his wife naked in the couple’s garden, he said.

“I never imagined that she might not be part of this game. That was my first huge error … I’m not looking for excuses. I lost my bearings.”

When Mrs Pelicot began to move at one point, her husband asked him to leave the room.

“That’s when I realised that something was wrong,” he said.

Mrs Pélicot remained stoically silent in court when Mr Rodriguez, who spent 12 months in detention during the pre-trial investigation and is now divorced, said he “cannot imagine the nightmare she went through and is still going through”.

His own life had “also been destroyed”, he said.

Some 27 unsettling images were shown in silence on Wednesday, reportedly displaying Ms Pelicot naked and conscious in ‘lewd’ positions.

Defence lawyers argued that showing the images, which were extracted from Mr Pélicot’s hard drive, would be “useful in revealing the truth”.

Caroline Darian, Ms Pelicot’s daughter, left the courtroom at her mother’s request before they could be shown.

Isabelle Crépin-Dehaene, a defence attorney, argued that graphic photos showed Mrs Pelicot “awake” and “smiling”.

“Not all women would accept this type of photo. They show that there was a request from the husband that the wife was perfectly aware of.

“I deduce that the Pelicot couple played a sexual game of their own.”

She added that by sharing these photos, Mr Pélicot “may have led some people to believe that the woman was willing and game to partake in a threesome”.

Mrs Pélicot told the court she had no memory of the photos being taken. “They’re trying to trap me with these photos... to show that I baited these individuals into my home and that I was consenting,” she argued.

Losing her cool for the first time, she said: “Since setting foot in this courtroom I have felt humiliated.”

“I’m being called an alcoholic and someone who gets intoxicated to the point of becoming Mr Pelicot’s accomplice.”

“I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr Pelicot or those other men,” she said.

Lawyers gave the impression that she was “the guilty party and those 50 men victims,” she added.

Reacting to remarks by Guillaume De Palma, a  defence lawyer who told the court “there’s rape and there’s rape”, she hit back: ”No, there are no different types of rape.”

Following Mr Rodriguez, a 72-year-old retired marine firefighter – the oldest defendant – denied raping Mrs Pélicot when giving his testimony on Thursday.

Grandfather Jacques Cubeau offered his apologies to her, saying: “Madam, when I discovered what you had suffered, I was devastated.

“Having participated in all of this destroyed me. I hope that you, your family, will overcome all of this.”

However, he said he believed this was a “scenario set up by the couple” when he arrived to find Ms Pelicot asleep “with her mouth open”.

‘I thought it was a fantasy’

Mr Cubeau insisted he did not have penetrative or oral sex with Ms Pelicot as the courtroom gasped.

“I thought it was a fantasy of theirs…I got the idea that it was a shy woman in a swinging couple.”

He then launched into a tirade about the “notion of patriarchy”.

“What could we do to prevent this from happening again? I think it’s the notion of patriarchy, my wife, this notion of property. I think that with the generations to come, this notion must disappear.”

Mrs Pélicot has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

The trial has horrified France, notably because many of the defendants appear as “ordinary” men with no previous convictions, including a fireman, a nurse and a journalist, many of them with families.

Seventeen men remain in custody, including Mr Pelicot himself, but 32 other defendants are attending as free men.

One co-defendant, still at large, is being tried in absentia.

The trial continues.