‘Destroyed’: French rape victim Gisele Pelicot’s horrific evidence

WARNING: Distressing. Gisele Pelicot has told a court she believed she had the perfect husband, before a crushing realisation.

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

A French woman who was unknowingly drugged and raped by her husband of 50 years and, allegedly, dozens of strangers has told a court how the realisation has “totally destroyed” her.

Gisele Pelicot took to the stand in the southern city of Avignon overnight where a court is hearing a mass rape trial for 51 men, including her husband Dominique Pelicot, 71.

The court has heard that Ms Pelicot was given crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication in her food and drink by Mr Pelicot, who then invited men to their home to allegedly sexually assault her during a nine-year period.

“I am a woman who is completely broken and I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself,” she told the court on Wednesday, local time, The Guardian reports.

“I’m 72 soon and I’m not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this.”

Gisele Pelicot was asked to address the court for a second time by the judge. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

Ms Pelicot has emerged as a feminist icon in France after she chose to have the trial held in public, rejecting her statutory protection of anonymity.

She was asked to address the court for a second time by Judge Roger Arata, and spoke of her desire to empower other women by exposing the rape culture that exists in society.

“I wanted all woman victims of rape – not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels – I want those women to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too.

“When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.

“The profile of a rapist is not someone met in a car park late at night. A rapist can also be in the family, among our friends.”

The court proceedings, which runs until December, are open to the public at the request of Gisele Pelicot. Picture: Benoit Peyrucq/AFP

The court has heard Mr Pelicot’s co-accused were identified by police through video tapes he kept of the alleged assaults.

Ms Pelicot addressed her husband directly on the stand, saying she believed he was the “perfect man” who she thought she would be with “until the end”.

“For me, this betrayal is immeasurable,” she told the court.

“How can the perfect man have got to this? How could you have betrayed me to this point? How could you have brought these strangers into my bedroom?”

“I always tried to lift you higher, you who plumbed the depths of the human soul, but you made your own choices.”

A mural reading "Gisele, women thank you" near the Avignon court. Picture: Christophe Simon/AFP

The court heard Ms Pelicot believed her husband’s fixing of meals was him “being attentive”.

That included him bringing her favourite flavour of ice cream – raspberry – in bed while he watched football in the other room.

“And I thought, how lucky I am, he’s a love,” she said.

“I never felt my heart flutter, I didn’t feel anything, I must have gone under very quickly.

“I would wake up with my pyjamas on. The mornings, I must have been more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and thought it was that.”

She believed the drugs were also put in her morning breakfasts “but I didn’t feel the moment where I went under”.

Mr Pelicot also accompanied his wife to meetings with a neurologist and gynaecologist when she became concerned about her health, with the court hearing she thought she could have Alzheimers.

“So many times, I said to myself how lucky am I to have you at my side,” Ms Pelicot said.

“I consulted three gynaecologists. Several times I had woken up and felt like I had lost my waters – as happens when you give birth.”

Mr Pelicot has previously admitted in court “to the charges in their entirety”.

“I am a rapist just like all the others in this room … I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apologies,” he said, according to French media.

Dozens of men have given evidence during the trial denying rape, saying they believed she was pretending to be asleep or that her husband’s consent was sufficient.

The accused men include a nurse, a journalist, a prison officer, a local councillor, a soldier, truck drivers and farm workers. They are aged between 26 and 74.

The trial is expected to continue until December 20.

Originally published as ‘Destroyed’: French rape victim Gisele Pelicot’s horrific evidence