Inside the depraved mind of 'career criminal' Dominique Pelicot

19 December 2024, 17:39 | Updated: 19 December 2024, 22:47

How could a man drug and rape his wife and invite strangers to do the same?

It is a question that has underpinned weeks of evidence in the trial of Dominique Pelicot who was today jailed for 20 years for the attacks on his then wife Gisele Pelicot.

A further 50 men were convicted alongside him - the majority for rape - and between them sentenced to more than 400 years in prison.

The court heard distressing details of a decade of abuse, including how Pelicot recruited men and filmed the assaults.

Kerry Daynes, a consultant forensic psychologist, tells Sky News she sees Pelicot as a "career criminal" - rubbishing his defence's claim that a psychological disorder caused his actions.

What motivates this type of crime?

Pelicot is "somebody who has developed a fetish, in his eyes, for degrading women unbeknownst to them", Ms Daynes says.

"So whether that's through voyeurism, upskirting, or the drugging and raping of his wife, this has got to be connected to a need for power and control.

"I think that Giselle understands this and said, 'No, actually, I refuse to be humiliated. I refuse to be degraded by you, because all of that shame you want me to feel actually belongs to you'."

Why did Pelicot target his family members?

Ms Daynes says he could have chosen to victimise members of his family, Giselle particularly, because he viewed it as "less risky".

"If you engage in behaviour that is so disgraceful, so abusive and hideous, and you allow yourself to really acknowledge that, you would break down.

"Therefore it's imperative for sex offenders to find a psychological way of dealing that […] so they engage in psychological acrobatics."

Does Pelicot have a split personality?

Court-appointed psychologist Dr Laurent Layet examined Pelicot when he was initially arrested for upskirting and, at first, "didn't find any signs of psychological illness".

"But I communicated to the judge I was very astonished between the presentation of Dominique Pelicot and the events he was being reproached for at the time," he told Sky News' Gillian Joseph on The World programme.

When they met again, as Pelicot faced charges relating to Gisele, Dr Layet said he did find a "clivage" - a "split" in English.

He explained: "This means there was Mr Pelicot the older man, very well integrated into society.

"But on the other hand, there was another Mr Pelicot, who was a sexual deviant, recruiting individuals through the internet and bringing them to his home to rape his wife."

But Ms Daynes rejects the claim Pelicot suffers from a split personality as "absolutely ridiculous".

She argues: "It implies that there's some sort of psychiatric condition underlying this. There's not. He knows exactly what he's doing.

"He's not driven by any kind of psychosis or even major personality dysfunction. He is, quite simply, a sexual deviant who hates women, and wants to abuse them and degrade them."

More from Sky News:
How Gisele Pelicot became a feminist hero
The 51 men convicted in the Pelicot case

She continued: "Pelicot's lawyers have said this is a man who has been leading a double life. I agree with that, but he's not somebody with a split personality. He is simply somebody who is able to compartmentalise.

"This is how sex offenders operate. They're not monsters lurking in alleyways. They're not somehow different from the men that we share our lives with.

"They are the men that we share our lives with, and that's what this case really graphically illustrates."

(c) Sky News 2024: Inside the depraved mind of 'career criminal' Dominique Pelicot