‘It’s a long process, mourning someone who’s alive’

As the daughter of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, Caroline Darian is coming to terms with being the child of both victim and perpetrator in the biggest rape trial in French history

Angelique Chrisafis

FOUR YEARS AGO, Caroline Darian thought she had a normal life. She was in her early 40s, she had a home in the Paris area, a job as a communications manager, a husband who worked for a TV breakfast show and a six-year-old son. She got on well with her parents, who had retired to the picturesque village of Mazan in Provence in the south of France, to a house with pastel-blue shutters where they would all often spend long summers together in the garden under the mulberry tree and splashing in the pool – with barbecues and music, board games on the patio and country bike rides with her dad. Darian remembers the exact moment that this all shattered. It was 8.25pm according to the clock on her kitchen…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 17 January 2025

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