AVIGNON, France: Harrowing details emerged Sept 3 at the trial of a Frenchman charged with enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife, with her daughter temporarily leaving the courtroom as she became overwhelmed by emotion.

The case against 71-year-old Dominique P. has horrified France, after the allegations were only exposed by chance when he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a local supermarket.

The trial in the southern city of Avignon, due to conclude in December, is weighing rape and sexual abuse charges against him and 50 other men aged 26 to 74 who he allegedly recruited online to abuse his wife.

Dominique P. on Tuesday said "yes" when asked if he was guilty of the accusations against him. The trial going forward will eventually determine his sentencing, as well a verdict on the charges against the other men involved in the sexual abuse.

The wife - 72-year-old Gisele P. - is attending the trial, which she has asked be open to the public, as are their daughter and two sons.

Her lawyers say she was so heavily sedated she was not aware of the abuse that went on for around a decade between 2011 and 2020.

Presiding judge Roger Arata, who leads a panel of five judges to issue a verdict in the trial, on its second day coldly read out the main findings of the investigation.

‘And I stopped calling you dad’

Their daughter, who uses the pen name Caroline Darian, left the room in tears less than 20 minutes after the start of the hearing.

Arata recounted how naked photomontages of her had been found on Dominique P.’s computer in a folder titled "Around my daughter, naked". Darian collapsed in tears.

Darian left the room trembling, escorted by her two brothers and her lawyer Antoine Camus, but reappeared some twenty minutes later.

For their children, "it's immensely painful, unbearable", the lawyer said afterwards.

"Even if they are not discovering anything new as they know the case, it was particularly gruelling this morning."

Gisele P., wearing a white blouse, remained calm and reserved throughout the proceedings.

At the other end of the courtroom, but directly opposite her, sat her husband, dressed in a grey T-shirt and appearing emotionless.

She has commenced divorce proceedings.

As their daughter Darian returned to the courtroom, she paused in front of the dock reserved for 18 of the accused who are in custody, including her father, but none looked her in the eye.

Some have already been sentenced for domestic violence or rape.

Darian in 2022 wrote a book Et j'ai cesse de t'appeler papa (And I Stopped Calling You Dad) about the effect of the discovery of the crimes on the family.

Camus said he hoped the trial would raise awareness about abuse using so-called date rape drugs within families.

According to France's drug security authority, 42% of credible reports of date rape drug use in 2021 occurred in the private sphere.

Just 19% of cases had been reported as happening in a party context.

Online forum

From time to time, Dominique P. glanced at some of the 32 other defendants attending the trial as free men in another part of the courtroom.

A 51th man is being judged in absentia.

Besides the husband, there are 72 suspects in the case but only 50 have been identified and tracked down.

Most of them face up to 20 years in jail for aggravated rape if convicted.

Several have been accused of abuse on six different occasions.

During searches investigators came across thousands of photos and videos showing Gisele P. being sexually abused by strangers recruited online on a forum called "Without her knowledge" on the controversial website coco.gg, shut down by the courts since last June.

Dominique P., who appeared on the site under a pseudonym, has claimed he only "occasionally" logged on.

But several discussions were found in which he sometimes used the term "rape" and told potential attackers that administering sleeping pills to his wife allowed him to abuse her by engaging practices she would normally refuse.

Police said they found hundreds of pictures and videos of his wife on Dominique P.'s computer, visibly unconscious and mostly in the foetal position.

The images are alleged to show dozens of rapes in the couple's home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people around 33 kilometres (20 miles) from Avignon in the Provence region.

 - AFP