by A man accused of raping a French woman while her husband drugged her unconscious has apologized after graphic images were shown in court.
Lionel Rodriguez, 44, a former supermarket worker and father of three, said he mistakenly thought he was taking part in a libertine “game” and did not think it was abuse before he noticed “something was wrong”.
The defendant is among 50 men accused of taking part in the mass rape of Mrs Pelicot over the past ten years in a trial won by France.
The woman’s husband at the time, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot, admitted drugging her into a comatose state and inviting strangers to rape her.
Mr Rodriguez confirmed in court on Thursday that he raped Mrs Pelicot on December 2, 2018, although he said he did not intend to.
“Since I never got Mrs Pelicot’s consent, I have no choice but to accept the facts,” he said.
He told the court he was looking for new partners on the Libertine website as a swing when Mr Pélicot suggested he have sex with his wife.
Although Mr Pelicot’s explanations were “not very clear”, Mr Rodriguez said he believed he was taking part in a game.
“There was talk of medical drugs. Sometimes she takes them and sometimes he gives them to her,” he said.
“I didn’t ask myself too many questions,” he said.
Mr Pélicot sent him pictures of his wife exposed in the couple’s garden, he said.
“I never imagined that she might not be a part of this game. That was my first huge error … I’m not looking for excuses. I lost my dreams.”
When Mrs. Pelicot began to move at one point, her husband asked him to leave the room.
“That’s when I realized something was wrong,” he said.
Mrs Pélicot remained silent in court as Mr Rodriguez, who spent 12 months in detention during the pre-trial investigation and is now divorced, said “he cannot imagine the nightmare he went through and is still going through” .
His own life was “destroyed too”, he said.
Around 27 harrowing images were shown in silence on Wednesday, showing Ms Pelicot naked and conscious in ‘lewd’ positions.
Defense lawyers argued that showing the images, which were removed 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 defense solicitor, argued that the graphic photographs showed Mrs Pelicot “awake” and “smiling”.
“Not every woman would accept this type of photo. They show that there was a request from the husband that the wife was perfectly aware of.
“I gather that the Pelicot couple played a sex game of their own.”
She added that by sharing these photos, Mr. Pélicot “could cause some people to believe that the woman was willing to participate in threesomes and that they were happy”.
Mrs Pélicot told the court she had no recollection of the photographs being taken. “They want to arrest me with these photos … to show that I lured these people into my house and that I was consenting,” she argued.
When she lost for the first time, she said: “Ever since I set foot in this courtroom I have been humbled.”
“I am called an alcoholic and a drunk until I am Mr. Pelicot’s accomplice.”
“I did not, even for one second, give my consent to Mr. Pelicot or those other men,” she said.
Lawyers suggested she was “the guilty party and the 50 male victims,” she said.
Responding to statements by Guillaume De Palma, a defense lawyer who told the court “there is rape and there is rape”, she hit back: “No, there are no different types of rape.”
After Mr Rodriguez, a 72-year-old retired marine firefighter – the oldest defendant – denied raping Mr Pélicot while testifying on Thursday.
His grandfather Jacques Cubeau apologized to her, saying: “Madame, when I found out what you suffered, I was devastated.
“After I got involved, I was devastated. I hope you, your people, will overcome all of this.”
However, he said he believed this was a “story made up by the couple” when he arrived to find Ms Pelicot sleeping “with her mouth open”.
‘I thought it was a fantasy’
Mr Cubeau insisted he did not have penetrative or oral sex with Mr Pelicot as the courtroom gasped.
“I thought it was their fantasy … 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 the notion of patriarchy, wife, is this notion of property. I think that with the generations to come, this concept must disappear.”
Mrs. Pélicot has become a feminist icon since she demanded that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
The trial shocked France, not least because many of the defendants are seen as “ordinary” men with no previous convictions, including a fireman, a nurse and a journalist, many of them with families.
Seventeen men are still in custody, including Mr Pelicot himself, but another 32 defendants are serving at large.
One co-defendant, still at large, is being tried in absentia.
The trial continues.
