France: Victim testifies in gruesome rape trial

Gisele Pelicot, a 71-year-old French woman, appeared before a court in Avignon, France, on Thursday to provide testimony in the rape case against her husband, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot.

Husband Dominique has admitted to sexually abusing his wife repeatedly between 2011 and 2020, by drugging her and inviting dozens of strangers into their house to rape her while he filmed the acts.

The couple's daughter, who also testified before the court, described her father as, "likely one of the worst sexual criminals in the past 20 years."

DW does not usually publish the names of victims but is doing so in this instance as per Pelicot's request for public naming in her effort to raise awareness about sexual abuse.

Victim hopes publicity of trial may spare others a similar fate

The disturbing case has shocked France, yet Giselle Pelicot has said she wants the trial to be public in order to help other victims of sexual abuse, adding that she hopes her testimony might spare others a similar fate.

Police stumbled upon evidence of the crimes by chance, while inspecting Dominique Pelicot's phone and computer after a supermarket security guard stopped him while he was filming up women's skirts in the store.

Police found hours of explicit video and thousands of images documenting more than 200 cases of rape by more than 90 strangers. It was then that they contacted Gisele Pelicot, who said she had previously been plagued by memory lapses she couldn't understand.

Initially, Gisele Pelicot told police her husband was "a great guy," it was only after they confronted her with the images they had discovered that she broke down — "everything collapsed," she said, in the face of, "these scenes of barbarity, of rape."

Pelicot said she packed "all that was left for me of 50 years of life together" into two suitcases and immediately left her husband after exiting the police station, quickly filing for divorce.

Victim to rapists: 'An anonymous phone call could have saved my life'

Police say Dominique Pelicot used a criminal messaging website — since shut down — in order to invite men to sexually abuse his incapacitated wife. Pelicot drugged her with a "cocktail" of medications say toxicologists. A medical expert at the trial testified that Gisele Pelicot had also contracted four sexually transmitted infections as the men were not required to wear condoms.

Over a two-year period, police were ultimately able to track down most of the 72 suspects they identified in the films. Pelicot and 50 other men — ranging in age from 26-74 — are now on trial for aggravated rape, a crime which could net them 20 years in jail each.

Though some have tried to claim they were manipulated into complicity, Giselle Pelicot flatly rejects such assertions: "These men entered my home, respected the imposed protocol. They did not rape me with a gun to the head. They raped me in all conscience," she said. "Why didn't they go to the police station? Even an anonymous phone call could have saved my life." 

Speaking to the court, Gisele Pelicot said, "It's unbearable. I have so much to say, that I don't always know where to start," adding, "I thought we were a close couple."

The trial is expected to last until December 20.

Dominique Pelicot is scheduled to take the stand next week.   

js/jcg (AFP, AP)