How Dominique Pelicot orchestrated ’horrendous crime’ that shocked the entire world

Dominique Pelicot, the accused sex offender behind dark web of crimes, is making headlines after his modus operandi came to light. His wife Gisele ultimately found the reason of her sufferings at the hands of her husband and the reason behind memory loss and pelvic pain.

Police’ chance encounter following Dominique Pelicot’s arrest in September 2020 for filming female customers lead to a deeper and tragic discovery of ‘horrendous crime’ that shocked the entire world. The dark web of crimes were unveiled when police confiscated his hard drive, laptop and phones. Hundreds of images and videos of his 50-year-old wife were recovered, allegedly being raped, CNN reported citing French police documents.

Dominique Pelicot’s modus operandi

According to Dominique Pelicot’s account, he looked for men online to rape his wife and invited them to medieval village of Mazan, in France. Pelicot engaged in an online community using pseudonyms.

The series of these horrific crimes began in July 2011, when Pelicot began recruiting men through a website online. Messages recovered by the police have served as key evidence in the trial of the 72-year-old that spanned nearly 10-year period.

Pelicot reportedly organised the abuse of his wife through an elaborate framework. He texted regularly in a forum called “without her knowledge” where sexual violence was normalised. From showing live video of unconscious wife on Skype to sharing intimate photos and videos of Gisele, court documents revealed the sex-offender’s misdeeds.

Pelicot enlisted men to allegedly rape his wife at their home in the sleepy southern French village of Mazan. It was found that all the accused lived not more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the Pelicots’ house. CNN report suggested that the oldest accused is 74 years old, while the youngest is 27 years old now.

French police tracked down 50 co-defendants, majority of them have been accused of aggravated rape. Co-defendants alleged that Pelicot acted as a “conductor” who forced and manipulated them to abuse his wife. Meanwhile, Pelicot’s lawyer refuted these claims. Pelicot and14 others pleaded guilty to the sexual assault.

During trial, Dominique Pelicot alleged that “without this website” the case “would never have reached such proportions,” while Gisele’s lawyer likened the site to the “murder weapon.”