She could have asked for and obtained a closed-door trial, preserved her anonymity and protected what was left of her life after discovering that her husband had been drugging her for ten years and then allowing dozens of men he had contacted to enter her home and rape her. But Gisele Pélicot testified last Thursday, September 5, in the Avignon court in one of the most followed trials of recent years in France before her husband, Dominique Pelicotand all the other male defendants, who range in age from 26 to 74. Most of them were wearing surgical masks, covering part of their faces.
She, 71, three children and seven grandchildren, victim of a shocking story of abuse, said that her “facade is solid, but inside it is a ruined field” and described herself as “a boxer who falls and gets up again”. In her testimony Gisèle Pélicot explained that she chose a public trial to get her story and her words to as many people as possible. “It is important to talk about this scourge. I do it on behalf of all the women who are subjected to it. Maybe one morning a woman who wakes up with no memory will think of my testimony.” This is also why she chose to keep her now ex-husband’s surname for the duration of the trial, and then take back her maiden name once the sentences arrived.
How the investigation into Dominique Pélicot began
Mr. Pélicot was stopped by the police in September 2020 for filming with a camera under the skirts of some women at the supermarketso the police had seized his phone, computer and several hard drives. During the investigations they had found thousands of exchanges on a free chat site, Coco.fr, and on a specific chat room called “A son insu”, “Without her knowledge”. From the conversations it was discovered that for about ten years Dominique had been giving his wife, at dinner time and hidden in the food, several Temesta tablets, a benzodiazepine used for anxiety and insomnia known in Italy as Tavor. After drugging her, at night he would let the men in, allowing them to rape his unconscious wife. He did not ask for money in exchange, but only to be able to attend and film.
In a USB stick, the police found hundreds of videos catalogued by date and name of the rapist as he appeared in the chat: the list contained the names of 83 rapists. The police, in two years of investigation, identified 51 of them, who were then arrested. They are between 30 and 74 years old, they do not live too far from the house of the couple, who had lived together for fifty years in Provence. They are firefighters, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, journalists, truck drivers. Some of them, after the police searches, were tried for other crimes, especially related to child exploitation. Many denied the accusations, claiming that they did not notice that the woman was unconscious or that having received her husband’s “permission” was enough for them. One of them even spoke of “involuntary rape”.
The investigation of The World and Gisèle Pélicot’s “moments of emptiness”
In the long investigation published by The World in June 2023, the rules that the man gave to strangers before entering the house and abusing his sedated wife were explained. No tobacco or perfume, they had to wash their hands with hot water first so as not to wake her. They had to undress in the kitchen, so as not to forget anything in the bedroom, park not far from the house and walk there. When the police summoned the woman for the first time and showed her the photos and videos made by her husband, she suddenly had the explanation for years of mysterious nightmares, moments of emptiness that terrified her to the point of stopping driving, chronic fatigue and severe gynecological pain. Over the years, she has contracted four sexually transmitted diseases: Dominique told her wife’s rapists that they didn’t have to use a condom. On her hard drives, the police found 728 images of child sexual exploitation and a Skype negotiation with a man to rape her fifteen-year-old daughter, who was also sedated.
Testimony: “They treated me like a rag doll”
Calm, composed and extremely lucid. This is how the French press described the testimony of Mrs. Gisèle, who, speaking of the rapes she suffered, said she had been treated “like a garbage bag, a rag doll.” When one of the lawyers suggested that the defendants had been “manipulated, overwhelmed by the criminal plan” of Dominique Pélicot, she responded that all the men “knew exactly what they were doing and what condition I was in. A phone call could have saved my life. None of them did.”
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