What is known about the atrocious case of Gisèle Pélicot, the woman who was drugged by her husband for almost ten years so that she was raped by more than 50 men

History has horrified France and has gone around the world: approximately 200 rapes attributed to 72 men. This is the case of Gisèle Pélicot, the 72-year-old woman who was drugged by her husband, Dominique Pélicot, for almost a decade so that dozens of men would rape her in their home.

The trial for the heinous crime began on Monday at the criminal court in Avignon, in the south of France. Of the 72 individuals, the police identified 54, two of whom were exonerated due to lack of evidence and another died. Thus, 51 of the perpetrators, including Pélicot’s husband, are now facing justice for the crime of aggravated rape between 2011 and 2020.

The victim refused to allow the trial to be held behind closed doors “on behalf of all those women who may never be recognized as victims.” And on Thursday she took the stand to testify against the detainees. “They considered me like a rag doll, like a bag of garbage,” she said.

This is the story of the case that is shocking France and the world today.

A decade of abuse uncovered in 2020

Gisèle Pélicot and Dominique Pélicot, 71 years old and a former employee of the electricity company EDF, had been married for 40 years. They had three children and several grandchildren and They had moved from the Paris region to the town of Mazan in southern France in 2013 after their retirement.

But the apparent normality of the marriage was shattered in November 2020. when the husband was arrested by security guards at a supermarket in the city of Carpentras for filming under the skirts of several women.

The police team that analyzed the computer material to investigate the events found with thousands of photos and videos of Dominique P. showing his unconscious wife, sometimes with their faces covered, and in which the abuses to which she had been subjected could be seen.

After the discovery, the police summoned the couple to the police station to show them the videos discovered.

The rape material was contained in a folder titled ‘abuse’, in which each video contained the name, age and, in some cases, the telephone number of each of the abusers.

“Night of May 26, 2020 Marc Sodo 5th time”, “night of June 9, 2020 Charly 6th time”, were just some of the names of the files, as reported by the French newspaper The Parisian.

Dominique Pélicot’s modus operandi

It was then that the investigation of the case began. According to the elements collected during the process, Between 2011 and 2020, Dominique Pélicot repeatedly drugged his wife with anxiolytics.

His goal was to put her into a state of unconsciousness that she herself would not even remember later, to ask dozens of men to have sex with her. Dominique P. ordered 450 pills to drug his wife in one year, according to the French national health insurance company Assurance Maladie.

The victim’s husband contacted the men online, most notably on the dating site Coco.fr, which was shut down by French authorities after discovering dozens of abuses taking place through the website.

The research, cited by The Parisiandiscovered that the man was contacting the abusers in a chat room called À son insu (in English: without their knowledge). “You are like me, you like rape mode,” read one of the conversations with the alleged abusers.

Then, The conversations continued via text message or other messaging apps where Dominique gave them prompts: “park at a certain distance, do not smoke or use perfume, undress in the kitchen, warm your hands beforehand, among others.” The clearest order was not to wake her or stop at any movement.

According to what was revealed at trial this week, the perpetrator’s computer also contained nude photos of his daughter Caroline.

What is known about Gisèle Pélicot’s abusers

Commissioner Jérémie Bosse Platière said there were approximately 200 violations attributed to 72 individuals, although two years of investigation have only allowed 54 of them to be identified.

Most of the accused only visited the victim’s house once. At least ten of them visited the victim’s house on several occasions, in some cases for up to six nights.

Dominique Pélicot said he did not ask his abusers for money in exchange and told investigators he did it because he enjoyed watching other men touch his wife.

The psychological examination did not reveal any pathology or mental abnormality, but did reveal a voyeuristic sexual deviation (excitement when watching a sexual act) and “a perverse personality.”

According to the man, all the abusers knew that his wife was on drugs and had not consented to the sexual act. But several of the suspects said they believed the woman was pretending to be asleep.

Other defendants claim that they were unaware that her husband was giving her sleeping pills and that they thought they were a libertine couple. that he wanted to experien
ce in his intimate relationships.

Commissioner Platière said authorities had been working for two years to determine who “Fireman Chris”, “Quentin”, “Gaston” and “David” were – the names under which the sexual abuse videos were saved.

To identify them, they used the telephone numbers they used to contact the victim’s husband, while in other cases the Skype contact was used to identify the IP address. A facial recognition program was also used.

Regarding their identities, it has been revealed that they are men from all walks of life. From firefighters and gardeners to soldiers or journalists between 26 and 73 years old.

Some have a long history of convictions for domestic violence or rape, sometimes of children, drug or alcohol addiction, and attraction to paedophile practices or zoophilia. Others were unknown to the justice system until now.

Given the number of people involved, the police had to make the arrests in five waves, between the end of 2020 and September 2021. Of the accused, 18 are in preventive detention, including the victim’s husband, 32 are appearing before the court on bail and one is being tried in absentia.

Gisèle Pélicot’s account before the courts

Gisèle Pélicot has been diagnosed with four sexually transmitted diseases directly attributable to the rapes. She also suffers from severe post-traumatic stress with suicidal thoughts and is in the process of divorcing her victim.

Although his lawyers acknowledged that it would be a difficult judicial process, Pélicot decided to make the process public so that no woman would ever again be a victim of abuse like the one she suffered.

“I speak for all these women who are drugged and don’t know it, on behalf of all these women who may never know it (…), so that no more women have to suffer chemical submission,” she said on Thursday when taking the stand on the fourth day of the trial.

In court, Pélicot said that she had supported her husband for almost 50 years and that they had always been very close, until in 2020 she was summoned to the police station to see the videos discovered in her husband’s archives. “My world is collapsing, everything is collapsing, everything I built for 50 years,” she said.

The victim said that at first it was difficult for her to recognize herself, that she looked “inert”, “asleep” and that she realized how she was abused: “Rape is not the right word, it is barbaric.”

“These are not sex scenes, they are rape scenes. There are two or three on top of me and I am inert,” she said, believing that she was “sacrificed on the altar of vice.”

These are not sex scenes, they are rape scenes. There are two or three on top of me and I am inert.

“They treat me like a rag doll,” “I wonder how I held out,” “the body is warm, not cold, but I am dead in my bed,” were some of her statements in court.

She also criticised the position of most of those appearing as defendants, who claim not to have been aware that she was drugged. and that there was no consent on his part.

“I have never practiced partner swapping. I would like to make that clear. I have never been an accomplice or pretended to sleep (…). These men defile me, they take advantage of me. And not one of them says that there is something strange,” she added.

Addressing the accused, he admitted to having “a feeling of disgust.” “Take responsibility for your actions at least once in your life,” he urged them.

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison in this trial that is due to last until December 20. Her husband is scheduled to be questioned for the first time next week.

*With AFP and Efe