By Henry Samuel
Gisele Pelicot has said the case against her then husband and fellow alleged abusers has laid bare a “macho society” in which rape is “trivialised”.
In her closing statements of a trial that has appalled France, the 72-year-old condemned the “cowardice” of those accused of attacking her – after many of them claimed they did not intend to rape her.
Gisele Pelicot.Credit: AP
Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of men online over a decade to abuse her while she lay comatose in their Provence home.
Gisele Pelicot said she had no idea of the abuse until police showed her video evidence they stumbled upon after arresting her then-husband for upskirting women in a supermarket.
Throughout the 11-week trial, she has sat in the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, to face her ex-husband, who she officially divorced on September 2, and 49 other men. One defendant is at large and faces up to 20 years in prison.
She told the packed courtroom: “It’s time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape changes. It’s time we changed the way we look at rape.”
Gisele Pelicot has become a feminist icon after demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse and so that “shame changes sides”.
She said: “I knew what I was signing up for when I gave up the right to a closed trial … I admit that today I can feel the tiredness.”
The hearings marked a “trial of cowardice” on the part of the men accused of taking part in the rapes, she added.
‘Betrayed and fooled’
Of the co-defendants, only 14 have admitted charges of aggravated rape.
The 35 others deny having raped her and maintain that they thought they were taking part in sex games.
Gisele Pelicot said: “I’ve seen people take the stand who deny rape, and some who admit it.
“I want to say to these men: at what point did Mrs Pelicot give you her consent when you entered the room? At what point do you become aware of this inert body? At what point do you not report it to the police?”
None of her alleged abusers alerted the police.
People gather in Paris in September in support of Gisele Pelicot.Credit: AP
Asked whether her husband was a sexual predator, she said: “Of course, certainly.”
She added: “I don’t forgive him. His actions are unforgivable. I was betrayed and fooled.”
Responding to defence lawyers’ suggestions that their clients had also been “manipulated” by her ex-husband, Pelicot said: “Your conscience has to kick in when you step into the bedroom. They are not children.”
Gisele Pelicot described herself as a “positive” person who would attempt to rebuild her life.
However, she added: “I’ve lost 10 years of my life that I’ll never make up for. This scar will never heal. There’ll forever be 51 people who have defiled me and I will have to live with this for the rest of my life.”
A name ‘known throughout the world’
Investigators have counted around 200 alleged rapes, most of them by Dominique Pelicot, along with more than 90 that were carried out by strangers. Almost half of them have not been identified.
Gisele Pelicot said her former husband “had a lot of fantasies that I couldn’t fulfil”.
She added: “But why did it come to this? I think what he wanted was Mrs Pelicot and not someone else.
“As I didn’t want to go to a swingers’ club, he thought he’d found the solution by putting me to sleep.”
This photograph shows a mural created by Maca_dessine depicting Gisele Pelicot and a sentence reading: “So that shame changes sides” in Gentilly, south of Paris.Credit: AFP
Asked why she continued to use her ex-husband’s name during the trial, she responded: “When I arrived in this room, my children were ashamed to bear the name Pelicot. I wanted to bear it so that they would not be ashamed.
“Today my name is known throughout the world … People will remember Gisele Pelicot.”
In his final remarks, her husband said he “bitterly” regretted having “annihilated” his family and said that “subjugating an unsubmissive woman was my fantasy, out of pure selfishness”. He said this constituted his main “motive”.
Dominique Pelicot reminded the court that he had been shaped by sexual abuse and trauma in his childhood – but added this did not “excuse anything”.
“That caused a break in me. It lasted for life,” he told the court.
‘You will die lying and alone’
Dominique Pelicot denied ever having abused Caroline Darian, his daughter, after photographs of her partially undressed were found on his computer hard drive.
“I insist that I never touched my children or my grandchildren,” he said, bursting into tears.
However, Antoine Camus, her lawyer, warned Dominique Pelicot that failure to acknowledge the facts would leave his daughter “in perpetual hell”.
Gisele Pelicot’s children Florian, (right), David, and Caroline Darian arrive in the Avignon courthouse, southern France on September 5, 2024. Credit: AP
Dominique Pelicot replied: “I can tell her, looking at her straight in the eye, that I never touched her … Caroline, I never touched you.”
His daughter then shouted across the room: “You are lying. I am sick of your lies. You will die lying and alone.”
They then glared at one another across the silent room.
Prosecutors will deliver their closing arguments on Thursday and Friday, which will include their sentencing demands for the defendants.
A verdict in the case is expected by December 20 at the latest.
The trial continues.
The Telegraph, London
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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