A man who says he learned to drug and rape his own wife from Frenchman Dominque Pelicot, who's admitted to drugging and raping his own former partner for almost a decade, and recruiting scores of strangers to assault her as well, said Wednesday that he deserved to be harshly punished.
"I'm in jail and I deserve it," the 63-year-old told the court in Avignon where the mass rape trial of Pelicot has been unfolding to the horror of the French and international public.
"What I did is appalling. I'm a criminal and a rapist," said Jean-Pierre Marechal, a tall man with a buzzcut who claimed he was supplied with tranquillisers by Pelicot.
Pelicot, 71, has admitted slipping his then wife Gisele sedatives to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her.
Gisele Pelicot also testified in the Avignon court Wednesday, saying she felt humiliated by defense lawyers suggesting she could have been complicit in the ordeal.
"Since I have set foot in this courtroom I have felt humiliated," she said during the trial of her former husband, who stands accused along with 50 other men of raping his wife between 2011 and 2020.
"I'm being called an alcoholic, and someone who gets intoxicated to the point of becoming Mr. Pelicot's accomplice," she bristled.
Marechal is the only one involved in the case who is not accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot. Instead, Marechal is accused of raping or attempting to rape his 54-year-old wife Cilia 12 times, with Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of those assaults after the two men met online.
"What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment," said Marechal.
"I regret my actions," he told the courtroom. "If I had not met Mr. Pelicot, I would have never committed this act. He was reassuring, like a cousin."
According to prosecutors, after the two men met on a website called Coco, Pelicot started sharing images of his abuse of his wife by the men he'd enlisted, explaining to Marechal how he drugged her. Marechal said he initially refused Pelicot's invitation to rape his wife, but later changed his mind.
Prosecutors have said Pelicot appears in at least three recordings of 12 assaults on Marechal's wife Cilia.
Pelicot said he stopped contacting Marechal after Cilia woke up while he was in the room.
Marechal says he had a "happy life" with his wife
Marechal told the court he had been abused by his father as a child.
"My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence," he said. "We experienced terrible things from my father, sexual abuse."
"My mother tried to protect us but she drank," he added.
Marechal said he had a "happy life" with his wife after meeting her as a young man. She too told the court last week that it was a happy marriage.
"I love my wife," he said.
He lived about 30 miles from the Pelicot home in the southern town of Mazan, where the main defendant is accused of abusing his own wife in her bed.
Gisele Pelicot has been lauded globally for waiving her right to anonymity under French law and insisting the trial be open to the public, hoping to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
Frank Andrews contributed to this report.
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