Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old woman who had retired to a small village in provincial France, has become a heroine not only to compatriots but to people thousands of miles away, rightly saluted by global leaders and ordinary citizens alike. In refusing anonymity, and insisting that the trial of her ex-husband and other men for raping her be held in public, she has forced a broader recognition that “shame must change sides”. Her extraordinary courage and composure shone through the grim hearings.
For almost 10 years, Mrs Pelicot’s husband of decades drugged and raped her, and sedated her so that dozens of others could rape her at his instigation. Dominique Pelicot was caught by chance after a security guard caught him filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket, prompting police to seize his computer equipment. But he has since admitted an attempted rape in 1999, after police matched his DNA to a sample from the scene, and is under investigation for a 1991 rape and murder that has similarities with that incident. He denies involvement.
