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Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter has revealed she barely speaks to her mother now, despite sharing the ordeal of a high-profile mass rape trial.
Caroline Darian claims that she was also a victim of her father Dominique Pelicot, who was convicted in France last year after orchestrating her mother’s rape. But Ms Darian says her allegations have led to a rift between mother and daughter, laid bare in a new interview.
“My mother let go of my hand in that courtroom,” Ms Darian told The Telegraph, as she discussed the fallout from a case that shocked the world.
“She abandoned me. For four years I accompanied my mum everywhere. I supported her without ever judging her. And it wasn’t always easy because she didn’t want to hear what I was telling her about Dominique. But in that courtroom, she was supposed to help me. And that, I can never forgive her for.”
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Caroline Darian sits next to her mother and her brother at the courthouse during the trial of her father(AFP via Getty Images)
The three-month trial last autumn saw 51 men convicted for a total of 428 years and retired electrician Pelicot jailed for the maximum term of 20 years.
During the investigation, police recovered deleted photographs of Ms Darian from her father’s hard drive in a file called “My Daughter Naked”. In the photos, she appears asleep, in underwear she says was not her own. She believes they were taken after having been drugged like her mother.
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Pelicot denied sexually assaulting or raping his daughter during the trial. Ms Pelicot declined to answer when she was asked in court if she supported her daughter’s claims.
Ms Darian has detailed her ordeal in a book, ‘I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again’, which recounts the discovery of her father’s abusive behaviour and how the family managed to carry on. She has also set up her own campaign #MendorsPas: Stop Chemical Submission: Don't Put Me Under to highlight the issue of drugged assaults.
Describing herself as the “invisible victim”, the author discussed her harrowing experience at the Hay Festival earlier this year.
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Ms Darian (left) says her mother has not supported her claims against her father(EPA)
“At the very beginning of the revelations, I discovered some pictures of me, taken from my beloved father, where I’m totally sedated,” she said. “He sedated me, like my mum. The main difference between my mum and me: my mum has all the evidence, all the proof of having been raped. But not me. I only have those pictures, almost naked, lying on the bed, with pants which are not mine.
“But I don’t know what’s happened before or after.”
In the aftermath of the trial, having bravely waived her anonymity, Ms Pelicot emerged as a courageous symbol against rape culture.
“My mum was catapulted into the limelight; she became an icon,” she told The Telegraph. “Meanwhile, there we were, back down on earth, with all these unanswered questions – and we are damaged. My mother isn't an icon - not to me.”
Asked what she would say if she bumped into her today, Ms Darian replied: “’Hello mum’ and ‘goodbye mum’.”