Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
A French woman is standing trial against her husband who allegedly drugged her to the point of unconsciousness for nearly a decade and allowed dozens of men to enter their home and rape her.
The 72-year-old victim waived her right to anonymity and has been identified as Gisèle Pélicot.
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She appeared in an open court on Monday (September 2) alongside her three children to watch her husband, 71-year-old Dominique Pélicot, stand trial in the city of Avignon in the south of France.
Gisèle told the court that she hopes her public testimony will help spare other women from going through a similar ordeal, and that she pushed for trial in an open court in solidarity with other victims of sexual crimes whose stories go unrecognized.
The case has so far revealed a series of harrowing allegations. As per The New York Post, Dominique allegedly invited men through an online forum then filmed them sexually assaulting his wife between 2011 and 2020. The website has since been shut down.
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The men invited into the couple's home reportedly had to follow certain rules like not talking loudly, removing their clothes in the kitchen, and not wearing perfume nor smelling of tobacco to erase any potential trace like leaving their clothes behind and to not wake Gisèle up.
Gisèle learned of the alleged rapes after her husband was caught taking photos of women's crotches in a supermarket in late 2020, prompting police to search his phone and computer drives. They proceeded to find thousands of images of Gisèle's alleged assaults.
She left her husband after police showed her some of the images.
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Gisèle reportedly thanked the lieutenant in the town of Carpentras who arrested her husband saying: "He saved my life and I probably wouldn't be here without him."
Over a period of two years, police were able to track down the majority of the suspects they found in the videotapes and images of the alleged rapes.
CBS also reports that Dominique allegedly both filmed the rapes and took part in them, and encouraged the men to use degrading language toward his wife. The men will also be tried in court.
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Dominique's lawyer said that he 'always declared himself guilty', while several of the other defendants are denying the accusations, alleging that they were manipulated by Dominique. They face 20 years in prison if convicted of aggravated rape.
Gisèle and Dominique were married for 50 years and share three children together.
Gisèle told the court that her daughter 'screamed like a wild beast' when she first heard the allegations.
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"I will never forget this," she added. "When I told my sons about this, I don’t think they really understood, they were withdrawn and didn’t react much. I think they were in a state of shock. They said don’t say such silly things."
"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," Gisèle testified in court. "They regarded me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag... I no longer have an identity. I don’t know if I’ll ever rebuild myself."
"For me, everything collapses. These are scenes of barbarity, of rape."
The trial is ongoing and is expected to last until December.
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
Topics: France, World News, News
Yasmeen Hamadeh