Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape in December. On Thursday, he was questioned by an investigative judge about an attempted rape in 1999 and a rape and murder in 1991, according to his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro.
Zavarro says that the investigation, which is being conducted by a police unit that deals with cold cases, has been ongoing since October 2022. Dominique Pelicot was questioned in the same investigation in October 2023, according to the lawyer.
Pelicot has denied involvement in the rape and murder case in 1991 but has admitted to the attempted rape in 1999 after being identified through his DNA.
Raises Concerns
These events occurred long before the period between 2011 and 2020, during which Pelicot invited dozens of strangers, whom he had contacted online, to his family's home in the small town of Mazan in southern France to rape his heavily sedated wife Gisèle.
The time gap between the crimes in the 1990s and the rapes in the 2010s and 2020s has raised concerns that Pelicot may have committed other crimes during this time that have not yet come to light.
His ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot has been hailed as a hero for her courage and dignity during the over three-month-long trial that ended in December with all 51 defendants, including her ex-husband and the men he hired to rape her, being convicted.
Denies Crimes
During the trial, Dominique Pelicot admitted to the attempted rape in 1999, while denying involvement in the murder and rape of a real estate agent who was murdered in Paris in 1991.
I have nothing to do with that case, said Pelicot.
The cases bear a resemblance to each other in that both victims were young real estate agents in their 23-year-old who received visits from a man under a false name who wanted to view an apartment.
Ether, an anesthetic historically used in surgery, was also noted in the investigations of the two cases.
