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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Yvonne Roberts

Will Gisèle Pelicot’s courage spell the end of rape victims being put on trial?

Gisèle Pelicot, followed by her lawyer, is congratulated by women outside the Avignon courthouse during the trial of Dominique Pelicot and others.
Gisèle Pelicot is congratulated by women outside the Avignon courthouse during the trial of Dominique Pelicot and others. Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images

Globally, home is the most dangerous place for women, a United Nations paper reported last week. It was referring to femicide, the killing of women by a partner or former partner, but as we’ve learned over the past three months during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, 72, and the 50 “ordinary” men who visited Gisèle Pelicot, 72, when she was drugged and comatose, to have sex with her inert body, home offers no haven for the living either.

Pelicot waived her right to anonymity, allowing her ex-husband’s cache of videos of the nocturnal rapes to be shown in court. “The shame is theirs,” she pointed out, always composed, refusing to be humiliated.

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