Monster of Avignon 'offered his wife to rape in return for gardening'

A witness has claimed that the Monster of Avignon asked him to do some gardening work at his home in exchange for allowing him to rape his drugged wife.

The man, identified as Jerome B, was in contact with Dominique Pelicot in March 2020, and told the packed courtroom in southern France that the retired electrician had offered him sex with his partner of 50 years in return for his services.

Pelicot, 71, has admitted to rendering his wife Gisele unconscious then inviting dozens of men to rape her in a campaign of abuse carried out over a decade.

The vile attacks were only uncovered when he was caught upskirting women at a local supermarket, with a subsequent police search of his home revealing thousands of photos of his wife in a computer file marked 'Abuse'.

Jerome B was identified in the depraved documents, but his file was reportedly left empty as he never went to the couple's home in the Provence village of Mazan.

Speaking from the witness box today, he said he 'refused to go' after Pelicot told him his wife would be drugged because he considered it to be rape.

The truck driver, who ultimately had no charges brought against him in the case, is now giving evidence in a trial which has seen 50 men accused of raping Mrs Pelicot.

'He asked me to do some gardening work and in exchange, he offered me his wife,' he told the court.

'I suggested it to him on a Saturday morning, he said no because he gave her a pill to make her fall asleep. 

'He added that he drugged his wife and offered her to men very often. I told him that it was rape and that I did not agree.' 

A second man, named as Cyril F, who is said to have had an 'empty file' in the case, also gave evidence today.

He told the court that he had a brief exchange with Pelicot on coco.fr, 'until he told me that his wife would take pills and that she would probably be asleep when I arrived.'

'I thought it was a young man talking nonsense, I didn't think at all that someone could drug his wife and I cut it short,' the 48-year-old civil servant claimed.

He added that he did not remember whether Pelicot had told him that he was administering the sleeping pills in secret or whether Gisele was taking them herself.

Gisele Pelicot has bravely waived her right to anonymity to unmask the alleged perpetrators in a case that has shocked the world.

Over the past four weeks, the trial in Avignon has heard man after man claim that Pelicot had 'tricked' them into taking part in his twisted fantasies of the rape and humiliation of his wife - many of which were filmed.

Pelicot delighted in watching strangers abuse his wife and made home movies and took pictures.

The stash of 20,000 images, recording the gruesome scenes, was only discovered when he was finally caught in September 2020.

Last month, Pelicot stood in the dock and admitted his guilt - and accused all his co-defendants of each having been willing conspirators.

He told the court: 'I am a rapist - like everyone else in this room.'

The trial, which is expected to continue until the end of the year, continues.