Daughter of French Man Who Arranged Rapes of Wife Recounts Being Shown Photos of Herself by Cops

Mar. 15, 2025

Caroline Darian.Photo:CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty

CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty

A French man admitted todrugging his wife over the course of several years and inviting dozens of men to rape her. His daughter has since said that she believes she was drugged, too.

Caroline Darian is the daughter of Dominique, 71, and Gisèle Pelicot, 72. Dominique admitted in court to drugging his wife with sleeping pills from 2011 to 2020 before allowing men to sexually assault her while he often filmed the rapes, according to reports fromThe New York Times,U.K. paperThe TimesandCBS.

The outlets reported that after Dominique’s images were discovered, they found photos of a sleeping Darian in addition to the numerous photos and videos of Gisele being assaulted.

NYTreported that while testifying in court on Friday in Avignon, France, Darian revealed that police showed her photos that Dominique had taken of while she slept.

Gisèle Pelicot.CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty

“I realized right away I was drugged in that photo,” Darian said, according toNYT,though she noted her father had not admitted to drugging her.

BothThe Timesand CBS reported that the photos of Darian were discovered in a computer folder labeled, “Around my daughter, naked.”

Dominique’s photos and videos werediscovered in 2020when police seized his phone cameras and other electronic devices after he had been accused of having filmed up the skirts of three women in supermarkets, the outlets previously reported.

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Darian wrote a book about the case in 2022 titled,And I Stopped Calling You Papa.As she testified in court,NYTreported that she is worried about what else might have happened while she believes she was drugged.

“What can you do for a person like me to heal?” she said, according toNYT. “To have a normal life of a woman, a normal sex life.”

TheBBCreported that Gisèle recounted telling her children about the abuse, which she only learned of when police told her what they had found.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.

source: people.com