Dominique Pelicot, the monster who horrified France by drugging his then wife, Gisele, so that other men could rape her is now caught up in other cases.
Pelicot is serving a 20-year prison term after he was found guilty in December of the horrific sexual abuse of his now ex-wife.
Pelicot’s lawyer said that his client now faces questioning by an investigating magistrate who specialises in so-called cold cases – those that have proved particularly hard to resolve.
The rape and murder cases that Pelicot could be questioned about on Thursday date back to the 1990s.
One involves Sophie Narme, a property agent who was killed in Paris on 4 December 1991.
The other is the attempted armed rape in the Paris suburb of Villeparisis, on 11 May 1999, of another woman with a similar profile.
Pelicot has been under formal investigation for both of those crimes since October 2022 – a legal status that means investigators believe there is an accumulation of serious evidence against him.
In September 2022 the two cases were grouped together into one investigation, and it was taken over by the specialised unit for cold cases and serial crimes. It operates out of the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, confirmed that he would face questioning by an investigating magistrate there on Thursday afternoon.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero both at home and abroad for waiving her right to anonymity and standing up to her abusers in court.
There are also signs that the case has started to shift social and medical practices in France around drug-facilitated sexual assault.
Women’s rights group Solidarite Femmes, which runs the 39 19 hotline, said it had noticed a clear increase in women reporting suspected cases of “chemical submission” – the act of drugging someone without their consent for criminal purposes – as well as sexual violence within couples.
Doctors failed to identify the drugging and sexual assaults committed for years against Gisele, who was tested for Alzheimer’s disease and brain tumours in an attempt to find the cause of the mysterious blackouts she suffered.
The truth only came to light in 2020, when her husband was caught by a security guard hiding his mobile in a bag and trying to take photographs up the skirts of female shoppers in a supermarket.
Additional copy from agencies
