The ‘Monster of Avignon’ stunned the courtroom in his closely-watched trial today as he admitted to drugging his wife and allowing multiple strangers to rape her.Dominique Pélicot, 71, spoke for the first time about his crimes on Tuesday morning after a period of absence from his trial due to sickness.’I am a rapist, like everyone else in this courtroom,’ he admitted today during a trial that has captured the world’s attention for its scale and horror. ‘I recognise the facts in their totality’. Mr Pélicot stood in the dock at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon as he faces trial alongside 50 other men, all accused of ‘aggravated rape’ of his wife Gisèle Pélicot, also 71, over a period of ten years. He faces 20 years in prison if found guilty.Bravely facing her former husband in court, Ms Pélicot said: ‘It is difficult to hear it.’For fifty years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined for a single second that he could do these acts. I had complete confidence in this man.’ Dominique Pélicot is accused of recruiting men online to assault his wife repeatedly over 10yrs Gisele Pelicot arrives at the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, September 17 In a new artist’s sketch, Mr Pélicot appears at the courthouse in Avignon on September 11In turn, Dominique Pélicot then pleaded for sympathy, saying: ‘I am guilty of what I did.’I subjected my wife, my children, my grandchildren to this. I regret what I did. I ask for forgiveness even if it is not forgivable.’ Madame Pélicot looked on impassively at her former husband as he shuffled into court using a cane to support himself. The courtroom was stunned as Mr Pélicot returned to the court from a period of absence to confess to his crimes.’Today, I maintain that, with the obligations we all have, I am a rapist, like everyone in this room. They cannot say otherwise,’ he told the court.Mr Pélicot also focused on alleged crimes he had allegedly suffered as a child, saying he was raped as a nine year old, and then forced to witness another sex attack when he was 14.’I only remember shocks and traumas from my youth. She did not deserve this. I admit it.”We are not born perverts, we become them. I think that what I have experienced is preponderant in my story. ‘Even if it is paradoxical, I have never considered my wife as an object. As for pedophilia, I have never wanted that.’Mr Pélicot claimed that he was sexually abused as nine year old in hospital and told the court: ‘It was in the dark, I had a bandage and a headache. A guy came and said to me: ‘My name is Basile, do you want some candy?”There were caresses, I felt a moustache, a great deal of pain, I didn’t understand what was happening to me.’ Mr Pélicot, a retired electrician, faced his wife in court on Tuesday, telling how his life turned around when he met her as a teenager.’I was very happy with her,’ said Mr Pélicot in his shocking admission. ‘She was the opposite of my mother, who was completely rebellious.’We had three children, and grandchildren, whom I never touched.’He said Gisèle Pélicot ‘did not deserve this.’At the end of the short statement, Ms Pélicot lowered her head, putting her sunglasses on.Mr Pélicot has been on remand since 2020, when he was first arrested on suspicion of gassing and then raping Ms Pélicot, while inviting men he contacted online to do the same.Mr Pélicot is facing a jail sentence of up to 20 years, along with all the other defendants. Gisèle Pélicot arrives at court in Avignon, France on day eight of the trial Dominique Pelicot can be seen in this court sketch on the rightLast week, psychologists described Mr Pélicot as a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character who appeared like a normal husband during the day, and then drugged his wife so strangers could rape her at night.All the attacks took place in the couple’s marital home in the town of Mazan, south of France, between 2010 and 2020, police say. His daughter, Caroline Darian, 46, last week told the court that he was ‘one of the greatest sexual predators’ of recent years.She said he secretely photographed her in the nude, along with her two sister-in-laws.This was at the same family home in Mazan, some 20 miles from Avignon, which Mr Pélicot had invited the alleged rapists.Mr Pélicot was first arrested in September 2020 for secretely filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in Carpentras.His devices were searched, and there were hundreds of pornographic videos and photos of women.It was while in custody that Mr Pélicot reported a hard drive, hidden under a printer, which contained a file called ‘Abuses’.It classified the nickname and telephone numbers of attackers, together with some 3,800 photos and videos of Gisèle Pélicot being raped, between 2011 and 2020.Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified.Mr Pélicot’s sex ring involved advertising on a site for ‘partners’ on a now-deleted online forum called ‘Without Her Knowing’ on the coco.fr site.Of the 83 men involved, 51 aged between 26 and 73 were identified and arrested by the police.Mr Pélicot is said to have sedated his wife by putting a powerful anxiolytic into her evening dinner. Abuse took place in the town of Mazan, south of France, and was only uncovered after the man was caught up-skirting women in a local supermarket – prompting officers to search his homeAlleged rapists involved in the case include civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a municipal councillor, and truck drivers.In a separate case, Mr Pélicot has been charged with raping and murdering a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991.He has admitted one attempted rape in 1999, after DNA testing proved a case against him.The Avignon aggravated rape case is due to last until December 21.Fourteen of the other defendants have also admitted rape, while the rest deny any wrongdoing.