'I am a rapist': Frenchman says in trial over mass rape of wife

Thousands of people gathered in Paris, France, to show solidarity with Gisele Pelicot and all rape victims, with demonstrators gathered in the Place de la Republique, holding banners that read "Support for Giselle," "Shame must change sides," and "Victims, we believe in you." on September 14, 2024.

"I am a rapist," said a Frenchman accused of drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could sexually assault her, his first testimony in a trial that has horrified France.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, used a cane Tuesday as he slowly entered the courtroom in the southern city of Avignon, where his now ex-wife was present for the painful testimony.

"I am a rapist, like the others in this room," Pelicot said, referring to the 50 other defendants in the mass trial — men he allegedly recruited online to rape his then-wife Gisele Pelicot.

"They all knew" that he was inviting them to rape her, he said.

But he added: "She did not deserve this."

Dominique Pelicot is accused of administering anti-anxiety drugs to Gisele over a period of almost a decade, from 2011 to 2020.

He has been charged with raping her while she was unconscious, and recruiting dozens of other men he met online to do the same.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges, but Tuesday was the first time he was speaking at any length since the trial began on Sept. 2.

He spoke of his "difficult" childhood, saying his parents "assaulted each other".

He briefly mentioned what he described as two "traumatic" episodes, being victim of a rape when he was nine years old and another on a construction site as an apprentice.

"I always carried these traumatising events with me," he said, his eyes welling up and his voice shaking.

"You...