Featured Image Credit: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, France, News, World News, Gisele Pelicot
Kit Roberts
Topics: Crime, France, News, World News, Gisele Pelicot
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
One of the men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot has given his shocking testimony as the trial continues.
Gisèle has become the centre of a trial of mass sexual abuse after she decided to waive her anonymity.
Her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot has been accused of drugging Gisèle and inviting other men back to their house in Avignon, where they would allegedly sexually assault her while she was under the influence of sedatives and anti-anxiety medication he'd allegedly given her.
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Pelicot has since admitted all the charges against him, and gave a two-word reason as to why he did it.
The alleged assaults happened over 11 years, and 83 men are believed to be involved in the trial.
Gisèle says she has no recollection of the alleged assaults and only discovered the truth when police found more than 20,000 images and videos of the attacks on Pelicot's phone and computer drives after he was caught 'up skirting' women in a supermarket in 2020.
Now one of the accused men has given his testimony in court.
According to The Mirror, the 37-year-old farmer told the court that he'd gone to the house because he 'had nothing else to do' on New Year's Eve.
He also admitted that he had sex with Gisèle, but like many of the men who have been accused, he has denied the charge of rape.
The farmer argued that he believed that he had been part of a 'consenting scenario', and claims he had no idea that Gisèle had been drugged, The Daily Mail reports.
He also said that he had a prior experience of swinging before the alleged encounter with Pelicot.
He told the court: "I was in a bar once when a man approached me and said 'My wife likes you, would you like to sleep with her while I watch? I agreed and it happened that same night.
"With Pelicot I met him New Year's Eve as I had nothing else to do."
The court also heard that he'd had been 31 years old and married at the time of the alleged offence.
He said: "I had fallen out with my brothers because of my drinking and drug habit so I went to Pelicot's house.
"I never had any intention of raping Mrs Pelicot."
He continued: "I'd had a bath, I'd put aftershave on, I'd got ready. An hour after exchanging messages on Coco.fr (a swinging website) I was at his house."
Gisèle opted to waive her anonymity and has become a symbol for survivors of drugging and sexual assault.
Saying why she waived her anonymity, she said: “I speak for all women who are drugged and don’t know about it, I do it on behalf of all women who will perhaps never know."
The trial continues.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.