A ‘disciple’ of the Monster of Avignon accused of rape alongside him has begun giving evidence.
Jean Pierre Marechal, 63, is said to have drugged his own wife after taking advice from Dominque Pelicot, who was in the witness box with him.
Pelicot, 73, is charged with raping his wife Gisele, who has waived her right to anonymity and arranging for at least 50 other men to abuse her while she was drugged.
Marechal, dressed in a beige shirt, stood next to Pelicot, who had arrived at the court in Avignon in a wheelchair and sat listening intently as his co-accused spoke.
In the sordid case which has attracted global attention, Marechal, said to be ‘a good husband and father’, is accused of raping his own wife and offering her to Pelicot.
He is not accused of raping Gisele.
In his bombshell testimony earlier his week, Pelicot admitted he was a rapist adding ‘just like the other 50 men’ in the courtroom.
He also said he had carried out the decade long abuse of Gisele out of ‘idle boredom’ after retiring from his job as an electrician.
Marechal drugged his wife, 53, at least a dozen times between 2015 and 2020 after meeting Pelicot on a now closed sex website called Coco.gg
While she was asleep both men then raped her before she woke and saw a man with a torch running out of the bedroom.
Marechal is said to have told his wife Pelicot wanted to ‘see her in her underwear’ and she later told investigators she had no idea she had been drugged.
Police were able to trace Marechal after examining computer equipment they had seized from Pelicot’s home when he was arrested in late 2020.
Retired truck driver and father of five Marechal has admitted the offences and unlike Gisele, his wife has stood by her husband and not divorced him ‘for the sake of the children’.
Like Pelicot, Marechal blamed his actions on an sexual abuse he suffered as a child – including his own father who made him carry out sex acts on him.
Marechal said: ‘My mother tried to protect us but she drank every day, all the time. We saw her die of cirrhosis of the liver.
‘She knew she was going to die, she prepared us for it. Even after, I didn’t blame my father, I always thought it was normal.
‘I know today that it is atrocious. Like what I did to my wife.’
Marechal continued: ‘I regret my actions, I love my wife, I am in prison I deserve it but will do my best to get better.
‘I was a rapist, a criminal, I committed criminal acts.’
He added: ‘I have attended sessions on domestic violence, we owe respect to women, a woman deserves respect.’
Marechal told the court he had begun watching violent porn in 2013 following the death of his mother and to ‘relive the attacks’ carried out on her.
When asked who had the idea of targeting his own wife, Marechal replied: ‘I’m not going to deny it but I’m not going to blame him (Pelicot) for everything. I didn’t refuse it.’
Marechal also told the court that he and his wife had a normal sex life but it had ‘calmed down with age’.
He added: ‘We got along very well. My wife was at home with the children, I was working. Before I committed these despicable acts, I never forced her but we had no problems as a couple.’
Marechal told the court that Pelicot had visited his house ‘around a dozen times’ with tranquillizers to give his wife but they had only worked ‘four or five times’.
Underlining evil Pelicot’s role he added:’ Without him, I would never have taken this action, he was reassuring and imposing.’
But he denied raping Pelioct’s wife Gisele, and said: ‘No, I couldn’t, I couldn’t rape anyone other than my wife but he shared videos of her with me.’
When asked about Marechal’s testimony, Pelicot told the court ‘what he said is true’ adding: ‘What did worry me was being caught by the children and once we almost were when they came back earlier than expected from a nightclub.’
The court than heard a series of text messages exchanged between Pelicot and Marechal underlining their cosy relationship.
In a flurry of missives sent after Marechal’s wife woke up, Pelicot warned him: ‘If the cops question you, you don’t know me,’ adding a laughing emoji.
Marechal replied: ‘We will try again in three months,’ but Pelicot warned: ‘No, it’s too dangerous.’
As he spoke Gisele, who has attended court every day since the trial began listened from the opposite side with her daughter next to her.
Several of Pelicot and Marechal’s co-accused were also in court and all filed in wearing masks, caps and hoodies so as to avoid being identified.
The offences are said to have taken place over a decade long period that began in 2011 in the village of Mazan where the Pelicot’s lived.
Prosecutors expect the trial to last until December and if convicted Pelicot could be jailed for 20 years.