"He wants to testify"
Avignon monster in hospital: trial delayed
In the sensational rape trial in Avignon, France, the testimony of the main defendant Dominique Pelicot has been delayed. The 71-year-old was admitted to hospital on Tuesday, his lawyer announced.
The presiding judge, Roger Arata, ordered a forensic medical report. Pelicot had already left the court hearing early the day before. According to his lawyer, he was suffering from abdominal pain.
Main defendant confesses
Lawyer Béatrice Zavarro rejected speculation that Pelicot wanted to avoid the court hearing. "He has always said that he will be there and wants to testify," she said about her client, who had confessed during the investigations.
The judge held out the prospect of interrupting the trial "until his condition improves". His ex-wife's lawyers agreed. Neither 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot nor her children wanted to testify in the absence of the accused.
The Frenchman, who drugged his wife with sleeping pills for years and offered her to strangers for rape, was supposed to testify in court for the first time on Tuesday.
He has always said that he will be there and wants to testify.
Anwältin Béatrice Zavarro
"Self-centered and manipulative"
The day before, experts had certified that he was "self-centered" and "manipulative". He confessed to having abused his now divorced wife Gisèle together with strangers without her knowledge. He told investigators that this had become a kind of addiction.
Gisèle Pelicot had described in detail in court last week how she suffered from unexplained memory lapses and gynecological problems for years before she found out how her husband was abusing her.
This was uncovered when her husband came under judicial scrutiny for another offense and investigators came across some 4,000 photos and videos of the apparently unconscious woman being raped
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