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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Anna Moore

‘The bed you thought was safe, isn’t safe’: how Zoe Watts survived drug-facilitated rape – and fought back

A woman in a floral dress poses in her garden.
‘There were people in town taking his side’ ... Zoe Watts. Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Guardian

In September 2024, Amanda Stanhope watched, transfixed, from her home in Manchester, as the Gisèle Pelicot case made headlines around the world.

“Gisèle’s case was the first time I knew of somebody else who had been raped while they were drugged,” says Stanhope. “I remember feeling: ‘Thank God I’m not alone. There’s one other person in the world that this has happened to.’” Stanhope’s former partner, David Rogerson, was under investigation at the time for raping her while she slept, and filming the abuse. Pelicot’s husband, Dominique, would end up being convicted for drug-facilitated rape and sexual assault (DFSA), along with 50 strangers he had recruited online to abuse his wife.

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