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.
