Caroline Darian, the daughter of Dominic and Giselle Pellico, filed a lawsuit against her father, accusing him of drugging and raping her, which he always denied.
Last December, Dominique Pellico was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging his ex-wife Gisele, raping her and inviting dozens of men to also abuse her over the course of nearly a decade.
Peliko filmed his wife's rapes and stored hundreds of videos on his hard drive.
Among the footage found were two photos of his daughter, in which, as Darian claims, she is clearly unconscious, sleeping in an unknown position and wearing underwear he does not recognize.
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Dominic Pellicco gave contradictory explanations for the photos, but always denied sexually abusing his daughter.
Darijan has long claimed that the photos are proof that her father drugged and raped her, just like he did her mother.
"I know he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse, but I have no evidence," she told the BBC in January, speaking of the shock when police first showed her the photos.
Police will now launch an investigation, and prosecutors will later decide whether to initiate legal proceedings.
Beatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pellicault's lawyer, told French media that Darian's decision to file a lawsuit was "not surprising."
But she pointed out that prosecutors in the previous trial said there was not enough "objective elements" to charge Pellicco with rape and the use of chemical coercion.
Dariane's conversation with her father was one of the most dramatic moments during the 49-week trial of Dominique Pellico and 16 other men that shocked France and the world.
"I never touched you, never," Peliko told his daughter during a hearing.
"You're lying!" she retorted.
Watch the video: "My father abused me too," says daughter Giselle Pelico
Darian previously said she felt like the "forgotten victim" of the trial because, unlike her mother's case, there was no record of her abuse.
She told the French edition of Elle magazine that the lawsuit she filed against her father was "symbolic, but consistent with what I have been saying from the beginning: that I am a victim of chemical coercion [drug rape]."
"However, they never recognized me as a victim," she added.
She hired lawyer Florence Root to represent her.
Ruth has been fighting for years for justice for two women who were victims of rape in the 199s.
One of them, a young real estate agent known under the pseudonym Marion, was the victim of an attempted rape in 1999, which Pelico admitted to.
The second, also a real estate agent in her twenties, was raped and murdered in 1991.
Pelico is currently under investigation for the case, but has always denied any wrongdoing.
Darian said she saw a resemblance to Marion.
"We look strangely alike. She's blonde, her hair is a bob, we were born in the same year... I wanted to meet her lawyer and hear all the details," she told Elle.
In a police report, cited by French media, Ruth expressed regret that Darian was never offered gynecological examinations or tested for the drugs that Pelico used on his wife.
Ruth said the investigation was focused solely on Giselle Pellico and that her client was treated as a "secondary victim."
She asked the authorities to launch a new "serious and thorough" investigation.
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Forty-nine men are sentenced in December together with Dominik.
All were found guilty of at least one charge - rape or sexual assault of Giselle Pellicault.
Seventeen of them initially said they would appeal the charges, but seven have since dropped that intention.
If the other 10 continue to appeal the verdicts, the trial should be organized at the end of the year in Nimes, in the south of France.
The trial, which lasted from September to December 2024, attracted worldwide attention thanks to Giselle Pellico's decision to give up anonymity and allow the trial to be public.
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