Dominique Pélicot, the monster who horrified France by drugging his then wife, Gisèle Pélicot, so other men could rape her is now caught up in other cases.
Pélicot is serving a 20-year prison term after he was found guilty in December for the horrific sexual abuse of his now ex-wife, Gisèle.
His lawyer said that Dominique Pélicot now faces questioning by an investigating magistrate who specializes in so-called cold cases — those that have proved particularly hard to resolve.
The rape and murder cases that Dominique Pélicot could be questioned about Thursday date back to the 1990s.
One involves Sophie Narme, a property agent who was killed in Paris on December 4, 1991.
The other is the attempted armed rape in the Paris suburb of Villeparisis on May 11, 1999, of another woman with a similar profile.
Dominique Pélicot has been under formal investigation for both of those crimes since October 2022 — a legal status meaning that investigators believe there is an accumulation of serious evidence against him.
The two cases were grouped together into one investigation in September 2022 that was taken over by the specialized unit for cold cases and serial crimes. It works out of the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
His lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, confirmed to the AP that Dominique Pélicot would face questioning by an investigating magistrate there on Thursday afternoon.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero both at home and abroad for waiving her right to anonymity and standing up to her abusers in court.
There are also signs that the case has started shifting social and medical practices in France around drug-facilitated sexual assault.
Women’s rights group Solidarite Femmes, which runs the 39 19 hotline, said it had noticed a clear increase in women reporting suspected cases of “chemical submission” – the act of drugging someone without their consent for criminal purposes – as well as sexual violence within a couple.
Doctors failed to identify the years of drugging and sexual assaults committed against Gisèle, who was tested for Alzheimer’s and brain tumours in an attempt to find the cause of the mysterious blackouts she suffered.
The case only came to light in 2020, when Pelicot was caught by a security guard hiding his mobile in a bag and trying to take photographs up the skirts of female shoppers in a supermarket.
