The French woman whose husband recruited dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged told the court on Thursday that police saved her life by uncovering his crimes.
Dominique Pelicot invited over 70 men to rape his wife Gisele Pelicot over a period of nine years. The French man, now 71, would drug his wife’s evening meal or wine with sleeping pills or anti-anxiety medication before inviting men to rape her as he filmed the assault. The attacks took place between 2011 and 2020 - nearly a decade during which dozens of men violated the French woman in her own home.
Dominique Pelicot recruited the men through an online forum called “Without Her Knowing” which has reportedly been taken down. He would film the assault and sometimes participate in it himself. Police found 20,000 images and videos of the French woman being raped almost 100 times that the French man had saved in a folder called “Abuses.”
Fifty-one men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot are currently in custody, including Dominique Pelicot, while a few others are absconding or attending the trial as free men.
{{/usCountry}}Fifty-one men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot are currently in custody, including Dominique Pelicot, while a few others are absconding or attending the trial as free men.
{{/usCountry}}The French woman waived her legal right to anonymity in order to make the trial public, saying she was testifying on behalf of all women who have been assaulted while drugged.
“She was offended”
Gisele Pelicot, 71, cut a frail figure in court as the trial opened on Monday. She was supported by her three adult children as she entered the courtroom in the southern city of Avignon.
While she remained largely silent during the first three days of the trial, communicating through her lawyers, Gisele took the stand on Thursday to recall her horror when she discovered her husband’s crimes.
“Frankly, these are scenes of horror for me… I'm lying motionless on the bed, being raped,” she told the court, adding that she was used like a “rag doll” by her rapists.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, Gisele emphasised that she never engaged in libertine sex, did not practice swinging and did not have an open marriage.
Lawyers for some of the defendants questioned whether it was possible that she did not realise she was being abused for nearly a decade and asked if she had a libertine relationship.
Gisele Pelicot seemed upset about the question but remained seated. Her three children, however, left the courtroom in disgust over this line of questioning.
"Of course she was offended," said her lawyer, Antoine Camus. "She wanted to respond. We felt her bobbing up and down behind us, saying, 'I want to answer. I just have to answer,' and we told her, 'Tomorrow!'"