Gisele Pelicot, the French grandmother who has been hailed as a hero for insisting the trial of her ex-husband and dozens of other men accused of raping her be held in public, has taken to the stand and described herself as a “woman who is totally destroyed” but that she has a “determination to change society”.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him – of sedating and then raping his then-wife Ms Pelicot, and inviting other men over to rape her, across a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020. Fifty other men are also on trial, with the majority denying rape and arguing that they cannot be guilty because they did not realise she was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were raping her.
After two months of the trial, 72-year-old Ms Pelicot has told the court that she wants women who have been raped to know that “it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them”.
“I am a woman who is totally destroyed,” she said, before adding: “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don’t want them to be ashamed any longer.”
“This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims,” she said.
Asked how she has kept going in the face of what the court has heard, she said: “It’s true that I hear lots of women, and men, who say you’re very brave. I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society.”
Mr Pelicot watched from the dock as his ex-wife recounted how “lucky” she felt during their marriage to have him by her side, only for him to allegedly “bring these strangers” into their bedroom without her knowing.
She said she “trusted [him] entirely”, even as he sat with her through doctor appointments about her neurological health, problems that she later found out were brought about by his regular drugging of her.
“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?” she said.
Addressing her former husband as Mr Pelicot, Gisele said: “I wish I could still call him Dominique. We lived together for 50 years, I was a happy, fulfilled woman.”
“You were a caring, attentive husband, and I never doubted you. We shared laughter and tears,” she added.
Ms Pelicot only discovered the alleged rapes after her husband was caught shooting video up unsuspecting women’s skirts in 2020. When police later searched his house, they found thousands of pornographic photos and videos.
Prosecutors have said he would crush sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drinks, and invite men to rape her in the village of Mazan in Provence, France. He and the other accused face 20 years in prison if found guilty. Mr Pelicot says he found the men mainly in chat rooms.
“I never felt my heart flutter, I didn’t feel anything, I must have gone under very quickly,” Ms Pelicot told the court. “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.”
The trial has captured the attention of France, with Ms Pelicot insisting on attending the hearings in person. She has been praised as a feminist icon, attending the court in Avignon, a small city in southeast France, with her children.
The grandmother has also called for the lifting of restrictions on the screening of video evidence in the trial, with her lawyer saying this is necessary to show the “true horror of rape”.
Ms Pelicot told the court that her case highlights how a rapist is not just “someone met in a car park late at night” but “can also be in the family, among our friends”.
“When I saw one of the accused on the stand last week, who came into my bedroom and house without consentment,” she said. “This man, who came to rape an unconscious, 57-year-old woman – I am also a mother and grandmother ... I could have been his grandmother.”
The 50 men accused of rape and assault alongside Ms Pelicot’s former husband are aged between 26 and 74. They include a nurse, a journalist, a prison warden, a local councillor, a soldier, lorry drivers and farm workers.
In total, 49 men are accused of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault.
This week, the court is hearing the cases of six men. They include a 34-year-old prison warden, a 55-year-old electrician, a 32-year-old delivery driver, a 46-year-old mirror-maker, a 31-year-old painter and decorator, and a 47-year-old former factory worker.
Nearly two dozen defendants have testified during the trial’s first seven weeks.
One defendant testified that when he left home on a night in October 2018, he didn’t intend to rape anyone. “I thought she was asleep,” the 36-year-old transportation worker told the panel of five judges, referring to Ms Pelicot.
“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But there in the room, it was you.”
The trial runs until 20 December.
Associated Press contributed to this report
