A man who learned to drug and rape his own wife from the Frenchman who admits he recruited scores of strangers to sexually assault his partner, said Tuesday 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 that has shocked France is being held.
"What I did is appalling. I'm a criminal and a rapist," said the tall man with a buzz cut, who was supplied with tranquillisers by Dominique 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 for nearly a decade.
"What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment," said his co-defendant named only as Jean-Pierre M.
Jean-Pierre M. is the only one not accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot. Forty-nine other co-defendants are charged with taking part in the abuse, which lasted from 2011 to 2020.
Instead he has been charged with raping his own wife and letting her be raped by Pelicot after they met online.
- 'I love my wife' -
The man told the court that he had been abused by his father as a child.
"My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence," he told the court.
"We experienced terrible things from my father, sexual abuse." He described being forced to perform oral sex on his father so that he and his sister could go fishing with him.
He said when his sister cried, he agreed to do it. "I was used to it," he said.
"My mother tried to protect us but she drank," he added.
The co-defendant said he had a "happy life" with his wife after meeting her aged 33. She too had told the court last week it was a happy marriage.
"I love my wife," he said.
Jean-Pierre M. is accused of raping or attempting to rape his wife 12 times, with Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of them.
He lived some 50 kilometres away from the Pelicot home where the main defendant is accused of repeatedly abusing his own wife in the southern town of Mazan.
Gisele Pelicot, now 71 and divorced from her husband, has become a feminist icon since demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.