French sex offender Dominique Pelicot, sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping his wife, may have also sexually assaulted his own daughter, Caroline Darian, according to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Darian, who for 43 years believed her father to be a loving family man, told 60 Minutes that she now suspects she was also a victim. “I know that I was drugged and probably, even worse,” she said.
Pelicot, 72, was convicted last December for years of drugging his wife, Gisele Pelicot, and allowing other men to assault her unconscious body while he filmed the abuse. Investigators uncovered 20,000 photos and videos, involving more than 70 men, but only 50 could be identified, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Darian, who has publicly supported her mother in waiving her anonymity, described the ordeal as “a really difficult legacy.” She said the revelation about her father shattered her perception of him. “How can you imagine that your father can be one of the worst sexual criminals in France or even across the world?” she said.
Authorities began investigating Pelicot after he was caught upskirting women at a supermarket. A forensic psychiatrist who interviewed him, Dr Laurent Layet, told police that something about his behaviour seemed off. “I told the police that, for me, there was something that just didn’t gel between what he says and what he did,” Layet said.
Police then searched Pelicot’s devices and found extensive evidence of his crimes. “I think that Dominique Pelicot is one of the biggest sexual criminals that I have ever come across,” Layet said, as quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Darian, who had long been worried about her mother’s declining health, realised in hindsight that it was linked to the drugs Pelicot was administering. “I cried. I was so angry because I knew that she had some health issues, and I understood right away that it was linked to all of these drugs,” she said.
The investigation took a darker turn when officers found images of Darian herself in Pelicot’s files. “I’m almost naked … there’s no way someone can enter my bedroom for taking those pictures if I’m not drugged,” she said, adding that she strongly believes her father raped her.
Beyond his crimes against his wife, Pelicot is now being investigated for two cold cases. In 1999, a real estate agent known as Marion was attacked in a Paris apartment, with DNA from the crime scene later matching Pelicot’s. However, he has not been charged due to France’s statute of limitations.
Marion’s lawyer, Florence Rault, said the case could be reopened if linked to another unsolved crime. She pointed to a similar 1991 case in which a woman named Sophie Narme was raped and murdered. “For me both cases were exactly the same,” Rault said.
Darian, who continues to follow the investigation, said she hopes Pelicot faces further charges. “I’m thinking about all of his invisible victims,” she said.
She is now working to raise awareness about chemical submission—the use of drugs to render victims unconscious before assaulting them. “It can happen in your personal sphere, at home,” she warned. “Where you should be safe, and where you can’t even imagine that it can happen.”