DOMINIQUE Pelicot – the “Beast of Avignon” – has denied the brutal murder of an estate agent he is linked to by DNA.
But France’s most infamous rapist did admit to being at the scene where another woman claims he drugged and tried to rape her.
Dominique, 72, drugged his wife Gisele for almost a decade and encouraged over 50 men he found on the internet to rape her in a sadistic case that rocked France.
He was jailed last month for 20 years and now faces fresh murder and rape allegations – which he denies.
Dominique was dragged from solitary confinement to face a four-hour grilling by magistrates after his DNA data linked him to two notorious cold cases from the 1990s.
One was the vicious murder of Sophie Narme, a 23-year-old estate agent, who was strangled to death in Paris in 1991.
When she met with a client to tour an apartment Sophie was gagged, drugged, raped and murdered in a struggle so brutal her rings came off.
About Sophie’s sickening murder, the serial rapist declared: “I have nothing to do with this affair.”
The other was the attempted rape of another estate agent called Marion, who was attacked when she was just 18 in the same area in 1999.
Marion claims she was showing Dominique round a flat when he tried to knock her out with chemicals and rape her.
Beatrice Zavarro, Dominique’s lawyer, said the monster admits to meeting Marion and trying to undress her but denies attempted rape.
After Thursday’s questioning the lawyer said: “With regard to Marion, he effectively denies any attempted rape, explaining that he was there, and that there was a scuffle.
“If a scuffle took place, he had no intention of raping this young woman.”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Decade of vile rapes by 51 men, filmed 20k times by monster husband – inside trial that shocked world” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6366231435112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Beatrice added: “He answered all the questions – cooperating like he always does.”
There are lots of similarities between the two cold-case attacks, which Dominique’s lawyer acknowledged.
The crimes were linked by special cold-case investigators in September 2022 – and Dominique officially became a suspect in October that year.
In both cases, the victims were young real estate agents who were visited by a man under a false name to view a flat.
The two women were sedated with chemicals before they were attacked – which is how Dominique managed the serial rape of his wife for years.
The two women were also undressed in the same way, and a strong smell of ether – an anaesthetic – was noticed at the crime scenes.
Both attacks happened close to where Pelicot was living with his wife and three children at the time.
His DNA was put on a national database following his arrest over the crimes against his wife, which led to him being linked with both these unsolved crimes.
Dominique has spent the past month rotting in solitary confinement after being found guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife, Gisele Pelicot.
The case against Pelicot and the 49 other men accused of raping Gisèle shocked France for its three-month duration and was the country’s largest ever rape trial.
He is currently locked away in a high security prison close to the southern city of Avignon.
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