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Man Who Drugged Wife For Over 70 Men To Sleep With Blames Her

Published

1 year ago

September 10, 2024

A man on trial in France for drugging his wife and inviting dozens of men to r@pe her over a decade told a criminal psychologist that his wife was to blame for his actions because she wouldn’t go swinging with him.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, was excused from sitting through the hearing today, September 9, after his lawyer told the trial judge that he had suffered “medical problems” over the past 48 hours for which he had not received “adequate treatment”.

But psychologist Annabelle Montagne told the court in Avignon this morning that she interviewed the retired electrician in December 2020, a month and a half after he was taken into custody, where he admitted to carrying out the campaign of abuse of his wife Gisele.

The psychologist recounted: “Pelicot said, ‘My wife and I had a discussion about swinging but she didn’t agree so I drugged her’.”

Montagne said Pelicot maintained he loved his wife, but she added: “He sees his partner as an object to satisfy his sexual and narcissistic needs. His wife is then a partial object and no longer an object of total love.”

It comes as another prison psychologist this morning told the court that Pelicot had a “split personality”, lacked empathy and inherited the temper of his father, who was said to be a violent abuser.

She also revealed Pelicot maintains the sickening abuse of his wife would have continued if he had not been arrested and complained that his life had been ruined by the criminal charges brought against him.

The disturbing revelations into Pelicot’s mind were revealed before his two sons, David and Florian, took to the stand to give evidence against their father.

Psychologist Marianne Douteau this morning told the court how her client lamented his arrest, complaining that the case against him had ruined his life and that he and his wife could have continued in a happy marriage had his misdeeds not been discovered.

Douteau said: “(Pelicot) complains that this criminal case against him has destroyed his life.

“He claims everything could have continued as before if he had been arrested. He said: ‘Gisele would not have known anything, we would have continued to be happy”.”

Madame Douteau subsequently told the court of several major events in Pelicot’s upbringing, explaining that he revealed in a lengthy February 2021 interview with her that he was raped by a hospital nurse when he was aged just nine years old.

Meanwhile, Pelicot’s father Denis was said to be a vicious wife-beater who sent his son out to work from the age of 14 and took 80 per cent of his wages. His parents also took in a young girl, whom Denis is said to have abused.

The psychologist concluded that Pelicot had inherited a personality like that of his father – angry, stubborn and impulsive.

She said: “Dominique Pelicot comes from a troubled family in which young children were abused.

“[Pelicot] has a two-sided personality; he is a patriarch but he is also irresponsible and manipulative. Behind closed doors he does not respect limits.

“He has a split personality between the person he wants to be and the person he is.”

“He does not show any empathy – but he is not inauthentic [in his expressions of love for his wife],” she concluded.

The psychologist also explained how Pelicot admitted he was very sexually demanding and routinely sought out sex on the internet.

He told her: “I went on the internet every day, I was constantly on sites offering wife-swaps.”

The psychologist told how Madame Pelicot was cut off from her support network in Paris after the couple moved to the south of France in 2013 for their retirement, at which point Dominique Pelicot ramped up his heinous campaign of abuse until his eventual arrest in 2020.

Pelicot fell in love with Gisele, whom he considered “a saint,” when they were 18-year-olds and they married just two years later, setting up a home in the Paris region.

They both recall having a happy marriage, although she had an affair with a work colleague about 14 years after tying the knot while he also engaged in extramarital adventures.

Pelicot trained as an electrician and worked for French energy giant EDF, but in the early 2000s decided to retrain and start a new career as an entrepreneur in real estate.

He divorced his wife in 2004 in what he described as a “strategic move” to shield her from huge debts he built up in a failed business venture to become an estate agent, with the couple forced to borrow cash from various different sources.

Despite their monetary issues, the couple remarried in 2007 to huge fanfare, with Gisele’s stable income from her position as a manager in a Paris-based company meaning they were ultimately able to make ends meet.

But the picture of an idyllic marriage painted by Dominique Pelicot was torn down by his brother along with his sons David and Florian, who described their dad as an angry liar who could not stand to be contradicted and flew off the handle when he was confronted with his failings.

The case, heard in the town of Avignon in France’s Provence, has appalled anyone who has listened to how former electrical engineer Dominique Pelicot abused his wife over a decade.

Madame Pelicot, 72, last week faced down the 51 men – including her husband – who have been accused of raping her, all of whom were stuffed into the Vaucluse Criminal Court each day as proceedings continued.

In a three-hour testimony last week, the grandmother-of-seven described the moment she learned from police officers how she was drugged unconscious and then raped by strangers as she laid motionless on the marital bed, while her husband watched on, recording the abuse on camera for his own personal pleasure.

She told the court: “I was subjected on the altar of vice. It’s a dead woman on a bed. This isn’t a bedroom, it’s an operating theatre. They treat me like a garbage bag, a rag doll. These aren’t sex scenes, these are rape scenes, it unbearable.”

In her evidence, the couple’s only daughter Caroline Peyronnet told the court last week how her world fell apart when her mother called her to inform her of his crimes. Her agony was compounded when detectives discovered Mr Pelicot had also taken photographs of Caroline lying motionless on a bed in her mother’s underwear.

Caroline Peyronnet, 45, described her father as “one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years.”

The trial has heard that Pelicot’s perversion was only discovered after he was arrested for taking photos up women’s skirts at a supermarket near the couple’s home in the pretty village of Mazan, in the shadow of Mont Ventoux in September 2020.

A police search of his computer discovered 20,000 homemade films and photographs of men he met on the internet raping his wife dating back to 2011.

Detectives traced 50 of some 84 men that Pelicot had met on a now-defunct website and invited to his home to carry out the abuse.

They discovered that Pelicot routinely put powerful sedatives in his wife’s drink and food to render her unconscious for when her abusers arrived at the family home under cover of darkness.

Pelicot urged the men to sneak into the house and undress in the kitchen to leave no trace. Then, he turned on the camera and filmed as each man abused his wife, before meticulously filing and cataloguing the home moves under various skin-crawling titles.

The men, all from the Provence area of the south of France, are aged between 26 and 73 and include a fireman, a nurse, a civil servant, a plumber, a soldier and a journalist.

Detective traced 50 of these men and together with Pelicot, charged them all with r@pe.

About 16 of the accused, including Pelicot, have admitted the offence. But 35 maintain they are innocent, with one man telling police he believed Gisele Pelicot had consented as her husband was present.

Pelicot faces up to 20 years in jail. The other men face shorter sentences if found guilty.

The trial is set to last until December.

Headline

Aircraft Crashes In Owerri With Four Persons Onboard

Published

3 days ago

December 17, 2025

Editor

Photo: File copy

A Cessna 172 aircraft with registration number 5N-ASR, operated by Skypower Express, has crashed at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri, Imo State.

The aircraft had departed Kaduna International Airport en route to Port Harcourt International Airport before diverting to Owerri after the crew declared an emergency.

The crash occurred at about 8:00 pm on the airport premises, with four passengers and crew members onboard.

Confirming the incident, the Director, Public Affairs and Family Assistance of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Mrs. Bimbo Oladeji, said the agency had been notified of the crash.

According to the NSIB, the aircraft crashed on the approach area of Runway 17, but no fatalities have been recorded so far.

The statement said: “Following the occurrence, airport emergency services were successfully activated and arrived on site promptly. Reports indicate that there was no post-crash fire, and the runway remains active for flight operations, with other aircraft taking off safely after the incident.

“Efforts are currently underway to coordinate the recovery and evacuation of the distressed aircraft from the crash site to allow for a detailed wreckage examination.”

The NSIB said it has officially activated its investigation protocols in line with its statutory mandate

The Director-General of NSIB, Capt. Alex Badeh Jr., sympathised with the management of Skypower Express over the incident and expressed relief that no lives were lost.

Badeh Jr. added that the Bureau’s investigation team is already coordinating with relevant authorities to secure the crash site and commence a detailed investigation into the cause of the accident.

Two days ago, 11 persons narrowly escaped death as a private jet crash-landed at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on Sunday morning.

The occupants, including passengers and cabin crew, were safely evacuated amid an intense atmosphere, eyewitnesses told The Guardian.

The private jet, owned by Flybird Aviation, crash-landed at about 9:30 a.m. while approaching Kano Airport en route to Abuja.

The incident attracted urgent attention, with emergency staff and other stakeholders converging at the runway to render rescue operations.

The management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is yet to release an official statement on the incident. Unofficial sources disclosed that the passengers have been taken to an unknown destination.

Several aircraft incidents have occurred at Kano Airport, with several lives lost.

The last incident occurred in May 2002, when an EAS Airline aircraft departed the runway at Aminu Kano International Airport at 1:29 p.m. local time en route to Lagos.

Headline

Musk Breaks Record As First Person Worth Over $600 Billion

Published

3 days ago

December 16, 2025

Editor

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI, has reached a new personal wealth milestone, surpassing a net worth of $600 billion, driven primarily by a recent valuation increase of SpaceX.

The development makes Musk the first individual in history to exceed the US$600 billion threshold.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth stood at approximately $638 billion as of 15 December 2025, with the increase largely attributed to SpaceX, which was recently valued at around $800 billion following an insider share sale.

The privately held aerospace company, based in Starbase, Texas, is now considered the most valuable private firm globally, significantly boosting Musk’s personal holdings.

Musk’s stake in Tesla, estimated at roughly 12 per cent, is valued at nearly $200 billion, while his majority ownership of xAI Holdings is estimated at $60 billion.

Collectively, these assets place him on track to potentially approach US$700 billion, widening the gap between him and the world’s second-richest individual, former Google CEO Larry Page, valued at $265 billion.

The SpaceX valuation comes ahead of a projected public listing in 2026, which could see the company valued at approximately $1.5 trillion.

“Other shareholder meetings are snooze-fests but ours are bangers. Look at this. This is sick,” Musk said in November during Tesla’s shareholder meeting, referring to a performance-linked pay package approved by investors.

He added, “I super appreciate it.” The package, potentially worth up to US$1 trillion in stock, is tied to market-capitalisation and operational milestones over the next decade.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network has also contributed to investor confidence. The company continues to expand high-speed internet access to underserved regions worldwide.

Chad Gibbs, Vice President of Starlink Operations, stated that the satellite technology “bypasses the need to build massive amounts of infrastructure,” allowing broader and faster connectivity.

Musk’s ascent in personal wealth follows years of strategic risk-taking and long-term planning, with Tesla’s focus on electric vehicles, battery technology, and autonomous systems laying the foundation for his financial growth.

Analysts note that the combination of SpaceX’s soaring valuation, Tesla’s long-term incentives, and Musk’s diverse portfolio underpins his current status as the world’s wealthiest individual.

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

1 week ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP