The trial of a 71-year-old man has gripped France and horrified the world after he admitted to repeatedly drugging his wife and, over the course of decades, soliciting dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious. Dominique Pelicot’s confessions as well as the public bravery of his wife Gisèle have forced a nationwide reckoning over sexual assault and the double lives people lead through the internet.
As a court in Avignon has heard Pelicot’s case and allegations against 50 other defendants over the last several weeks, a pattern has emerged of men who lived publicly upstanding lives while allegedly engaging in abhorrent acts online and in private. As the men accused of mass rape have taken the stand, they have detailed how Pelicot found them and coordinated his abuse on an illicit chat forum called Coco.
