\n<\/p>\n
Dominique Pelicot, who drugged and raped his then wife Gis\u00e8le and recruited dozens of men to abuse her over almost a decade, has been questioned over two other attacks dating back to the 1990s. <\/p>\n
The 72-year-old Frenchman, who was jailed for 20 years in December, is being investigated over the alleged rape and murder of property agent Sophie Narme in Paris on 4 December 1991. He denies the offence.<\/p>\n
Investigators also quizzed him about the attempted rape of another young property agent, known by the pseudonym Marion, in a suburb of the capital on 11 May 1999. <\/p>\n
During his trial, Pelicot admitted to that offence after DNA evidence taken from blood found on Marion’s shoe was linked to him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However, when he was asked about Sophie Narme during the same trial, he said he had “nothing to do” with the killing.<\/p>\n
Investigators have previously pointed to similarities between the two cases.<\/p>\n
In the 1991 murder, the victim was attacked by a man who used a false name to book a viewing for an apartment. Detectives say Pelicot did the same in 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The smell of the anaesthetic drug ether was detected by police at the 1991 crime scene. Police say it was also used in the 1999 attack do subdue the victim.<\/p>\n
The two cases were grouped together in September 2022 and have been investigated by a team which specialises in unsolved cases and serial crimes. <\/p>\n
Pelicot was placed under formal investigation in October 2022 over both crimes.<\/p>\n
The criminal case against Pelicot and the 49 other men<\/a> accused of raping Gis\u00e8le lasted for three months and was France’s largest ever rape trial. <\/p>\n By the time it ended, she had become a national figure and was met by crowds of hundreds of people chanting her name<\/a> outside court.<\/p>\n Her decision to make the trial public has generated renewed conversations around rape, consent and gender violence in France.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n