After Gisèle Pelicot discovered her husband's abuse, her daughter found his hidden note.

When Gisèle Pelicot's children learnt of the horrific abuse their mother suffered at the hands of their father, Dominique, they rushed to be together.

They held their mother's hand as they crammed into an interview room at the police station. They stood together as they prepared to pack up their parents' home. But nothing could prepare them for what was to come.

It was a home intended to be Gisèle and Dominique's "perfect haven" for retirement. For their daughter, Caroline Darian, it was her family's happy place. The scene of noisy family games of Trivial Pursuit. A place where dinners turned into evenings of dance.

But in 2020, the horrific reality of the abuse that unfolded within its walls was revealed.

Dominique had been drugging his wife for almost 10 years and filming her, unconscious, being raped by him and more than 50 strangers.

He put powerful tranquillisers into his Gisèle's food and coffee that put her to sleep for hours. As she slept, Dominque allowed men he recruited via online chatrooms to abuse his wife.

Caroline and her brothers planned to pack up the home as quickly as possible.

It was there Caroline received a phone call that broke her. A police officer was at the other end, asking her to come to the station. There was something important he needed to show her — photographs of a woman asleep, with the quilt lifted to expose her buttocks.

Caroline Darian is sharing her story in her new memoir, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again. Image: AAP.

In her newly published memoir, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again, Caroline recalled that initially she couldn't recognise the woman in the photographs as her.

"The officer studies my face. 'I hope you don't mind me pointing this out, but don't you have a brown mole on your right cheek, just like the young woman in the photos?' I force my eyes back to the images. My vision is disturbed by a host of tiny starbursts, my ears start ringing and I jerk back in the chair," she writes, per an excerpt shared with The Times.

"The officer calls in my brother, who'd driven me to the station. Florian asks if he can see the pictures of me. Now we're both in a state of shock."

But she didn't have time to process. There was work to be done.

While packing, Caroline took down her father's paintings. One in particular got special treatment: a portrait of a naked woman.

"

It was then she spotted something written on the back in pencil.

"A date — August 2016 — and a title. He'd called it Under My Thumb. That night I don't sleep a wink."

Watch: University of Sydney students tear up sexual assault report. Article continues after the video.

"Who is this man who's been hiding inside my father?"

The revelations of her father's crimes tore Caroline's life apart, as she found herself questioning whether she ever really knew him at all.

"Who is this man who's been hiding inside my father for so long? I once had a father who looked out for me, took care of me. Where's he gone?" she writes in I'll Never Call Him Dad Again.

"How can you lead such a double life? How can you pull the wool over so many eyes for so many years?"

In the days that followed, Caroline's sense of self was shattered. She could feel herself going off the rails.

On one terrifying occasion, she found herself admitted to an emergency psychiatric ward after breaking down.

***

Invisible and forgotten.

That's how Caroline described herself throughout the months-long trial.

Caroline told the court she believed her father had abused her, but didn't have proof.

"I know I was sedated. It's not a supposition, it's a reality. I know it," she alleged.

During the trial, Dominque looked directly at his daughter and insisted he never touched her or his grandchildren.

"You're lying," Caroline screamed across the courtroom.

"You don't even have the courage to tell the truth. You will die in a lie. You are alone in your lie."

Gisèle Pelicot. Image: AAP.

Caroline said the only difference between her and her mother was that there was tangible and inescapable evidence of her mother's abuse.

"I don't have any evidence," she told the BBC. "And that's the case for how many victims? They are not believed because there's no evidence. They're not listened to, not supported."

Gisèle's eldest son, David Pelicot said he believed his sister had been abused by his father, who admitted to drugging and raping his mother.

"If you have any little bit of humanity left, tell the truth on what you did to my sister, who is still suffering every day and will suffer all her life," he said to his father.

Photographs of Dominique's daughters-in-law were also discovered during the investigation, alleged to have been taken with hidden cameras.

"When I discovered that my wife, when pregnant with twins, was photographed – and I don't know how many photographs – I want to ask: 'How could you do such a thing?' I keep asking myself why, what was the aim? I can't answer that question. But what I understand is that man went up the scale of fantasies with a violence that he always had in him," David said to his father during court.

Dominique was also investigated for the possible abuse of his grandchildren, the court was told. However, he repeatedly denied the allegations.

He was also accused of taking photos of his younger son, Florian Pelicot's former wife, Aurore, without her knowledge and while she was naked.

"What I want to say today is to ask the question: how did we get to this situation? How can human beings do such things?" she told the court.

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Rebuilding from ruins.

Since the truth came out, Caroline's relationship with her father has been broken in irreparable ways.

He was not charged with abusing his daughter, and was instead accused of "taking, recording or transmitting" a sexual image of her without her consent.

Now, she describes him as a "monster" who "should die in prison".

"When I look back, I don't really remember the father that I thought he was. I look straight to the criminal, the sexual criminal he is," she told the BBC.

"He is a dangerous man…. there is no way he can get out [of prison]. No way."

In court, she slammed her father as the "worst sexual predator of the last 20 years".

"How does a person like me heal, hope to have a normal woman's life, a normal sex life?" she asked.

"How does one rebuild oneself from the ashes?"

Gisèle Pelicot faces French court, flanked by supporters. Image: Getty.

Speaking after the sentencing, Gisèle said she hoped the public's involvement in her case would help other women who have suffered sexual abuse.

"I think of the unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know that we share the same fight," she said.

"It's not courage. It's determination to change things.

"This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims."

Caroline shares this same determination. As her family continues to slowly recover from the fallout of the horrific crimes, Caroline said she is looking ahead.

She has made it her mission to fight chemical submission and its "invisible" victims.

Feature Image: AAP.

This article was originally published in November 2024 and has since been updated to include new information.