But of course he does. You should never commit despicable crimes without documenting it all on video.
What little faith I have left in humanity gets slowly chipped away by the day.
French woman drugged by husband for nearly 10 years so other men could rape her
- Thread starter Badunk
- Start date
But of course he does. You should never commit despicable crimes without documenting it all on video.
What little faith I have left in humanity gets slowly chipped away by the day.
The way she found out was also terrifying. He was being questioned by the police because he was caught taking underskirt photos of women in supermarkets. He was an all round perverted specie. Police called her in and she thought she was being questioned for that. Imagine being questioned for this lewd act he's already committed only to find out you're one of his victims too but at an even more unimaginable level.
Yeah there really are some derpraved people out there. Hopefully he goes to prison for the rest of his life and she can find some peace.
I don't think it's possible for him to get his dues, legally that is,, personaaly I'd be advocating the use of a small version of France's head removal contraption
Absolutely depraved.
The bravery of her, at her age as well, to do this publicly and rightfully stand strong.
The bravery of her, at her age as well, to do this publicly and rightfully stand strong.
Starting with the head of a particular part of his anatomy...
That's why I said the small version
True, but loss of liberty for a crime of this magnitude doesn't seem like enough given the length of the crime and the likely amount of time he'd actually spend in jail
Fantastic to see senior staff violating their own rules to keep a certain subject contained to one thread with impunity and class.
Almost as good as when a staff member called the Jamaican national football team rapists.
Almost as good as when a staff member called the Jamaican national football team rapists.
Some of the worst quotes came from the city mayor.
Really shocking story. Its hard to get your head around the scale. Hopefully they manage to catch and charge as many of the other men as possible.
Yeah he's an idiot. He's right wing and was supported by the extreme right wing when he was last elected. Gives a bit of an idea of the kind of person he is.
I guess where people are coming from on this is the BBC article about "the village torn apart" (even though Mazan isn't a village), and which gives the impression there are 2 equally big sides in the town - that doesn't paint an accurate picture at all from what I've been told from people who were there for work, but it's good that the idiots and their shit opinions are being reported too.
Yeah she really is incredible.
There was a similar case here the other year, albeit on a smaller scale. In this case though, the blokes also raped each other's drugged wives.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...acy-rape-drugged-wives-sentenced-jail-3076516
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ears-jail-12-strokes-of-cane-for-raping-woman
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...acy-rape-drugged-wives-sentenced-jail-3076516
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ears-jail-12-strokes-of-cane-for-raping-woman
So this guy was asking men on dating apps if they wanted to rape his wife?
If I got this "offer" on an app I'd head straight to the police. How could this guy do it for 10 years without getting caught? Surely at least one of the men who refused it (online or local) would've gone to the cops you'd think.
If I got this "offer" on an app I'd head straight to the police. How could this guy do it for 10 years without getting caught? Surely at least one of the men who refused it (online or local) would've gone to the cops you'd think.
What the actual feck is wrong with way too many men?
I don't know the specifics of the case but from what I gather, reading between the lines of reports and articles, is that there would have been prior discussion before the offer that led the husband to believe that they were the kind of people who would accept.
That is a big, big question my friend.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5g24rr6lo
By waiving her anonymity Gisèle Pelicot has become a symbol of resilience and courage
When she walks into the courthouse in the French city of Avignon, flanked by her children and a team of lawyers, Gisèle Pelicot cuts an unassuming figure.
The 72-year-old mother and grandmother, her hair styled into a neat bob, wears colourful dresses and Breton tops. She looks down as she passes the dozens of journalists gathered by the entrance, her eyes hidden by round-framed sunglasses.
Behind them, as she has put it, lies a "field of ruins".
Nearly every day since 2 September, Gisèle Pelicot has been at the centre of a trial in which 51 men are accused of raping her, including the man she was married to for 50 years.
As her story has rippled through France since the trial began, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience.
"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," she said, explaining how she had learned that Dominique Pelicot had drugged her to sleep and recruited men to treat her "like a rag doll" for over 10 years.
The trial, due to run until December, has so far heard evidence from lawyers, police, psychiatrists, and from another woman whose husband drugged and raped her following instructions by Dominique.
Gisèle Pelicot's daughter Caroline (C) gave evidence about seeing photos of herself taken when she was unconscious
The Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, who believes her father abused her when she was unconscious, has also taken the stand.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him, although he denies abusing his daughter.
Unsettling details of the defendants' pasts, psyches and alleged crimes have filled the airwaves, news websites and social networks.
This kind of access has only become possible because Gisèle has waived her right to anonymity.
In a case of such magnitude it is an unusual decision, not least because it means thousands of videos of the alleged rapes filmed by Dominique Pelicot - in some cases surreptitiously - will eventually be played in open court.
Gisèle's only request was that her children be allowed to leave the room when that happens.
Protests have taken place outside the court in Avignon, but wider actions are planned across France
Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the "shame" back on to the accused.
Above all, the case has ignited a painful – and often uncomfortable – discussion about rape that many in France say is long overdue.
Protests are due to be held across the country on Saturday "in support of Gisèle Pelicot and of all rape victims".
When Gisèle gave evidence that she had to "start over from scratch" and was now only living off a small pension, an influencer set up an online collection that made €40,000 (£33,700) in under a day. It was quickly shut down following a request from Gisèle's legal team, who saw it as a possible distraction.
One key issue this case has thrown up is the little-discussed phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-induced assault in the home.
In 2022, 1,229 people in France suspected they had been drugged without their knowledge, according to Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist at the Paris addiction monitoring centre and an expert on drug rape.
That number is probably “only the tip of the iceberg”, she believes. Victims often hesitate to file legal complaints because they know the assailant, they might be ashamed, or they have hazy memories of what happened.
Complaints also need to be filed before the substances disappear from the body, which is not always possible.
For the 10 years her husband was drugging her, Gisèle Pelicot had unexplained neurological symptoms as well as gynaecological issues, and yet no-one put the clues together.
It points to a lack of awareness of chemical submission as a phenomenon.
Dr Chaouachi says training healthcare professionals and police is important, because the key to stemming the issue lies in recognising that there are others out there besides Gisèle.
“We have the right to be shocked, but we also need to recognise that these aren't isolated cases,” she says.
“When we only focus on the justice system and investigators, we're hiding behind them in some way. I think it's a broader societal issue, and therefore it's societal change that we need.”
Judging from opinions voiced on the streets of Paris, that view is not universally accepted.
In all, 51 men are on trial, but dozens more have not been identified
“It's a private affair,” said one man, who thought the case was awful but still an isolated event and not one for public debate.
“I don't understand why the media are making such a big deal about it. It is because people like drama, gossip.”
A friend agreed: “If you hadn’t asked the question, we would’ve never discussed this."
But a female companion said they were both wrong: “It's important this case is public... it raises a broader issue and raising awareness of it is necessary for change.”
What has shocked so many in France is the sheer number of men involved in the case.
Police were only able to identify 50 suspects out of the 83 that appeared in Dominique Pelicot’s videos.
Their ages range from 26 to 68 and they hail from all walks of life - firefighters, pharmacists, labourers and journalists. Many are fathers and husbands.
Of the other men accused, 15 admit rape, but all the others admit only to taking part in sexual acts.
“What shocked me even more is that so many men could have done this - more than 50 ‘normal’ men, who all lived nearby," said Caroline, a 43-year-old doctor from Paris.
"[Pelicot] didn't even have to look very far for them. It really scares me because it is a reflection of society. It's not the norm, but there are too many.”
Many of the defendants came from the same area as the Pelicots, who lived in the pretty village of Mazan
Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme hopes the fact that the accused come from ordinary backgrounds and all kinds of professions will mean that this trial has a lasting impact.
"It demolishes the myth of the rapist who is a psychopath... they raped because they were sure of their impunity."
Another concern that has not escaped the large numbers of women across France who are following the Pelicot case is that many other men knew and did nothing.
Dominique Pelicot had invited men to have sex with his wife “without her knowledge” in a post on the Coco.gg website, which was shut down only last June. Last year it counted 500,000 visitors a month.
“One hundred per cent of these people... never made a phone call to stop this abuse,” says Céline Piques. “Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts.”
The Avignon trial is also dredging up questions over the language surrounding rape.
The defence of many of the accused hinges on the premise they did not “know” they were raping Gisèle - in other words, that they thought they were having consensual intercourse with her.
Some have accused Dominique Pelicot of “manipulating” them into believing they were taking part in an erotic game in which Gisèle was only pretending to be asleep because she was shy.
At least two of the defendants stated they did not feel they had raped Gisèle because she had been “offered” to them by her own husband, and one man said he did not consider his actions rape because "for me, rape is when you grab someone off the street".
"I don't have the heart of a rapist," he added.
Gisèle Pelicot's decision to waive her anonymity has prompted France to reassess its legal definition of rape
Summing up this line of defence earlier this week, Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer for six of the defendants, caused outrage when he said that “rape is not always rape”, and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape".
In French law, rape is sexual penetration obtained by constraint, violence or surprise – and Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers are expected to argue that “surprise” covers the case of a sedated or unconscious woman.
But the comments caused outrage and dismay in the courtroom and beyond.
Gisèle's daughter Caroline stormed out of the trial exclaiming “I am ashamed of the justice system”, while the president of the court suspended the session amid a mood that reporters described as “extremely tense”.
Other lawyers reportedly distanced themselves from De Palma’s comments.
With the trial due to run for three more months, France’s soul searching will continue.
“It has shown how far behind we are at all levels,” said Sandrine Josso, an MP who was the victim of an attempted drug rape by a senator in 2023.
Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot, she said “we lift the veil, and we discover a lot of things”.
The ordinary nature of the couple at the centre of the trial – middle-class pensioners and grandparents – has made it easy for observers to identify with the story.
“I thought it could be my mother, my sister… and my father,” said Charley, a 35-year-old man living in Paris.
“For me, it's the trial of the century,” he added.
“There will be a before – and there will be an after.”
Women moved by defiant Gisèle Pelicot in France mass rape trial
By waiving her anonymity Gisèle Pelicot has become a symbol of resilience and courage
When she walks into the courthouse in the French city of Avignon, flanked by her children and a team of lawyers, Gisèle Pelicot cuts an unassuming figure.
The 72-year-old mother and grandmother, her hair styled into a neat bob, wears colourful dresses and Breton tops. She looks down as she passes the dozens of journalists gathered by the entrance, her eyes hidden by round-framed sunglasses.
Behind them, as she has put it, lies a "field of ruins".
Nearly every day since 2 September, Gisèle Pelicot has been at the centre of a trial in which 51 men are accused of raping her, including the man she was married to for 50 years.
As her story has rippled through France since the trial began, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience.
"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," she said, explaining how she had learned that Dominique Pelicot had drugged her to sleep and recruited men to treat her "like a rag doll" for over 10 years.
The trial, due to run until December, has so far heard evidence from lawyers, police, psychiatrists, and from another woman whose husband drugged and raped her following instructions by Dominique.
Gisèle Pelicot's daughter Caroline (C) gave evidence about seeing photos of herself taken when she was unconscious
The Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, who believes her father abused her when she was unconscious, has also taken the stand.
Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him, although he denies abusing his daughter.
Unsettling details of the defendants' pasts, psyches and alleged crimes have filled the airwaves, news websites and social networks.
This kind of access has only become possible because Gisèle has waived her right to anonymity.
In a case of such magnitude it is an unusual decision, not least because it means thousands of videos of the alleged rapes filmed by Dominique Pelicot - in some cases surreptitiously - will eventually be played in open court.
Gisèle's only request was that her children be allowed to leave the room when that happens.
Protests have taken place outside the court in Avignon, but wider actions are planned across France
Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the "shame" back on to the accused.
Above all, the case has ignited a painful – and often uncomfortable – discussion about rape that many in France say is long overdue.
Protests are due to be held across the country on Saturday "in support of Gisèle Pelicot and of all rape victims".
When Gisèle gave evidence that she had to "start over from scratch" and was now only living off a small pension, an influencer set up an online collection that made €40,000 (£33,700) in under a day. It was quickly shut down following a request from Gisèle's legal team, who saw it as a possible distraction.
One key issue this case has thrown up is the little-discussed phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-induced assault in the home.
In 2022, 1,229 people in France suspected they had been drugged without their knowledge, according to Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist at the Paris addiction monitoring centre and an expert on drug rape.
That number is probably “only the tip of the iceberg”, she believes. Victims often hesitate to file legal complaints because they know the assailant, they might be ashamed, or they have hazy memories of what happened.
Complaints also need to be filed before the substances disappear from the body, which is not always possible.
For the 10 years her husband was drugging her, Gisèle Pelicot had unexplained neurological symptoms as well as gynaecological issues, and yet no-one put the clues together.
It points to a lack of awareness of chemical submission as a phenomenon.
Dr Chaouachi says training healthcare professionals and police is important, because the key to stemming the issue lies in recognising that there are others out there besides Gisèle.
“We have the right to be shocked, but we also need to recognise that these aren't isolated cases,” she says.
“When we only focus on the justice system and investigators, we're hiding behind them in some way. I think it's a broader societal issue, and therefore it's societal change that we need.”
Judging from opinions voiced on the streets of Paris, that view is not universally accepted.
In all, 51 men are on trial, but dozens more have not been identified
“It's a private affair,” said one man, who thought the case was awful but still an isolated event and not one for public debate.
“I don't understand why the media are making such a big deal about it. It is because people like drama, gossip.”
A friend agreed: “If you hadn’t asked the question, we would’ve never discussed this."
But a female companion said they were both wrong: “It's important this case is public... it raises a broader issue and raising awareness of it is necessary for change.”
What has shocked so many in France is the sheer number of men involved in the case.
Police were only able to identify 50 suspects out of the 83 that appeared in Dominique Pelicot’s videos.
Their ages range from 26 to 68 and they hail from all walks of life - firefighters, pharmacists, labourers and journalists. Many are fathers and husbands.
Of the other men accused, 15 admit rape, but all the others admit only to taking part in sexual acts.
“What shocked me even more is that so many men could have done this - more than 50 ‘normal’ men, who all lived nearby," said Caroline, a 43-year-old doctor from Paris.
"[Pelicot] didn't even have to look very far for them. It really scares me because it is a reflection of society. It's not the norm, but there are too many.”
Many of the defendants came from the same area as the Pelicots, who lived in the pretty village of Mazan
Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme hopes the fact that the accused come from ordinary backgrounds and all kinds of professions will mean that this trial has a lasting impact.
"It demolishes the myth of the rapist who is a psychopath... they raped because they were sure of their impunity."
Another concern that has not escaped the large numbers of women across France who are following the Pelicot case is that many other men knew and did nothing.
Dominique Pelicot had invited men to have sex with his wife “without her knowledge” in a post on the Coco.gg website, which was shut down only last June. Last year it counted 500,000 visitors a month.
“One hundred per cent of these people... never made a phone call to stop this abuse,” says Céline Piques. “Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts.”
The Avignon trial is also dredging up questions over the language surrounding rape.
The defence of many of the accused hinges on the premise they did not “know” they were raping Gisèle - in other words, that they thought they were having consensual intercourse with her.
Some have accused Dominique Pelicot of “manipulating” them into believing they were taking part in an erotic game in which Gisèle was only pretending to be asleep because she was shy.
At least two of the defendants stated they did not feel they had raped Gisèle because she had been “offered” to them by her own husband, and one man said he did not consider his actions rape because "for me, rape is when you grab someone off the street".
"I don't have the heart of a rapist," he added.
Gisèle Pelicot's decision to waive her anonymity has prompted France to reassess its legal definition of rape
Summing up this line of defence earlier this week, Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer for six of the defendants, caused outrage when he said that “rape is not always rape”, and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape".
In French law, rape is sexual penetration obtained by constraint, violence or surprise – and Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers are expected to argue that “surprise” covers the case of a sedated or unconscious woman.
But the comments caused outrage and dismay in the courtroom and beyond.
Gisèle's daughter Caroline stormed out of the trial exclaiming “I am ashamed of the justice system”, while the president of the court suspended the session amid a mood that reporters described as “extremely tense”.
Other lawyers reportedly distanced themselves from De Palma’s comments.
With the trial due to run for three more months, France’s soul searching will continue.
“It has shown how far behind we are at all levels,” said Sandrine Josso, an MP who was the victim of an attempted drug rape by a senator in 2023.
Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot, she said “we lift the veil, and we discover a lot of things”.
The ordinary nature of the couple at the centre of the trial – middle-class pensioners and grandparents – has made it easy for observers to identify with the story.
“I thought it could be my mother, my sister… and my father,” said Charley, a 35-year-old man living in Paris.
“For me, it's the trial of the century,” he added.
“There will be a before – and there will be an after.”
Last edited by a moderator:
A real life Marianne.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2kdd3n7yqo
'I am a rapist', admits husband in French mass rape trial
'I am a rapist', admits husband in French mass rape trial
Dominique Pelicot, the 71-year-old man accused of drugging his wife to sleep and recruiting dozens of men to abuse her for over 10 years, has admitted to all the charges against him in his first testimony since the trial opened on 2 September.
Referring to the 50 co-defendants who are accused of raping his now ex-wife Gisèle, Mr Pelicot said: "I am a rapist like the others in this room."
"They all knew, they cannot say the contrary," he said.
Of his ex-wife, he said: "She did not deserve this."
"I was very happy with her," he told the court.
Gisèle, who was given the chance to respond shortly after, said: "It is difficult for me to listen to this. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would've never imagined could be capable of this. I trusted him completely."
Mr Pelicot, who was diagnosed with a kidney infection and kidney stones, was absent from court for nearly a week due to illness. He is set to give his testimony throughout the day, although he will be allowed frequent breaks.
Referring to the 50 co-defendants who are accused of raping his now ex-wife Gisèle, Mr Pelicot said: "I am a rapist like the others in this room."
"They all knew, they cannot say the contrary," he said.
Of his ex-wife, he said: "She did not deserve this."
"I was very happy with her," he told the court.
Gisèle, who was given the chance to respond shortly after, said: "It is difficult for me to listen to this. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would've never imagined could be capable of this. I trusted him completely."
Mr Pelicot, who was diagnosed with a kidney infection and kidney stones, was absent from court for nearly a week due to illness. He is set to give his testimony throughout the day, although he will be allowed frequent breaks.
Last edited by a moderator:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyek8pgy7po
.
An abrupt silence swamped the courtroom in Avignon as three large television screens, positioned high on three walls, flickered back to life. One could sense people bracing themselves.
In a bleak trial about extraordinary allegations of drugs and rape, it was time to show more of Dominique Pelicot’s carefully curated home videos.
Those videos, filmed by Pelicot and kept on a hard drive that he labelled “abuse”, document assaults on his ex-wife, Gisèle, over the course of a decade.
Fifty men are accused of raping her after she was drugged and left unconscious in the couple’s bed by her husband.
Now 72, Gisèle Pelicot has waived her anonymity so the full details of what she was subjected to can be revealed to the French public. Her lawyers fought to have videos of the crimes screened in court.
Although the judge had earlier said people “of a sensitive disposition” would be able to leave, one of Gisèle Pelicot’s legal team said many had decided to “look the rape straight in the eye”.
Many of the men recruited by her ex-husband on the internet insist they did not believe what they were doing was rape.
Dominique Pelicot sat behind a glass panel, slumped in his chair. His grey hair neatly cut, his left hand raised to block his view of the screen.
Gisèle Pelicot sat on the opposite side of the court, her head against the wall, her eyes occasionally closed. A blank, unreadable expression on her face.
On the screen, in near silence, a short, pale man wearing only blue underpants and black socks, could be seen approaching a bed.
The camera wobbled as it followed him. Behind the man, a woman lay on her left side, almost naked, on a crumpled white sheet. And then, without edits, without any blurring, the sex acts began.
At times, later in the video, you could clearly hear the woman snoring.
In court, Dominique Pelicot appeared to place both hands over his ears. For years he had laced his wife’s food and drink with an anti-anxiety drug, which made her unconscious and seriously affected her health.
This and other videos, shown in court and on Gisèle Pelicot’s insistence to the public watching from an overflow room near by, lie at the heart of the prosecution’s case.
Prosecutors argue that all 50 men who accepted online invitations from Pelicot to visit the family home in the village of Mazan, near Avignon, must have known his wife was unconscious.
Therefore, they must have realised that she was not a consenting partner in some kind of sex game in which she merely pretended to be asleep. Therefore, they must have intended to rape her.
But a string of defence lawyers and their clients have now sought to challenge that.
The man visible on screen in this particular video was a 43-year-old carpenter, named in court as Vincent C.
He stood now in front of the judges in a separate glass-walled area at the rear of the courtroom, with his head bowed down, looking away from the screen.
“Do you recognise the facts of aggravated rape that you are accused of?” asked lead judge Roger Arata – an affable figure with a large white moustache.
“No,” Vincent C replied.
His explanation, delivered haltingly, amounted to a hazy assumption that, since Dominique Pelicot had told him his wife was a consenting partner in a sex game, he had not given the matter any more thought.
At this point Gisèle Pelicot left the courtroom for a few minutes, saying “I can’t bear that man”.
Vincent C acknowledged the experience was “weird,” and unlike anything he had encountered with other couples. And yet, he went on, “I didn’t say to myself: this isn’t going well... I don’t think [about much else] in those moments."
However, having spoken to his mother and to lawyers, and watching the trial unfold, Vincent C said he had come to understand more about French law, the meaning of rape and the gravity of his actions.
“Now that I am being told how the events unfolded, yes, the acts I committed would amount to rape."
“Are you aware that Gisèle Pelicot was a victim of your acts?” asked the judge.
“Yes.”
Outside the courtroom, a lawyer representing another of the accused men distinguished between Pelicot and the others.
“Today it’s clear that Dominique Pelicot’s position is to try to dilute his responsibility by dragging down 50 other men. [Gisèle] is the victim. The question is whether the others were complicit in it or were tricked into participating,” said Paul-Roger Gontard.
While some of the accused have admitted to rape, others have claimed to have spoken or interacted with Gisèle Pelicot in the bedroom.
“So, there are grey zones in this trial,” Mr Gontard continued, pointing to the fact that the videos themselves had already been edited by Pelicot himself, meaning that evidence potentially helpful for the defence could have been cut out.
“He selected what he wanted to keep. He selected the shots. But don’t let that fool you. Everyone says he’s very manipulative.
"Many [of the accused] thought it was a libertine project with the couple, only to discover it was actually a sinister and criminal scheme devised by the husband.
“The question today is when did they realise something was wrong? This realisation varies among [the accused]. The question often arises – why didn’t they leave? It’s not that simple to leave at that moment when faced with a clearly dominant personality in a situation where they are naked and recorded by a camera,” the lawyer added.
The words of Gisèle Pelicot - "I was sacrificed on the altar of vice" - have been put up in a street in Avignon
Image source,Marianne Baisnée/BBC
Image caption,
The words of Gisèle Pelicot - "I've been sacrificed on the altar of vice" - have been put up in a street in Avignon
Ten minutes’ drive from the courthouse, in a small house in a suburb of Avignon, another of the accused, who has already testified in the trial, agreed to speak to the BBC on condition of anonymity. The man, a nurse by profession, portrayed himself as a victim of Dominique Pelicot.
“I was terrified… I was reduced to the state of an instrument. He was the one who told me: ‘do this.’ I said to myself, this man is not normal, he is a psychopath. It is an ambush, a trap. He is going to kill me in this house,” said the accused man.
He also claimed that Gisèle Pelicot had “reacted to simple caresses… she scratches herself with a co-ordinated movement”, which he said led him to believe that she was conscious and merely pretending to sleep.
When I challenged him, suggesting he was simply seeking to present himself as a victim to avoid culpability, he insisted that was not the case.
He lashed out, repeatedly, at the way the trial was being conducted, at alleged “pseudo-feminists”, and the “hysteria” the media had generated.
Speaking forcefully, but occasionally sobbing, he maintained he was not a rapist. However, he acknowledged that “I will never be considered innocent in this case. I will always carry my guilt with me. I know that.”
The trial in Avignon is set to continue for many more weeks, with a verdict due shortly before Christmas.
Only half of the accused have so far been called to testify, but already this case has revealed, in the grimiest detail, the horrors to which Gisèle Pelicot was subjected, and her extraordinary courage in declining her right to privacy.
The case has also highlighted longstanding debates about French laws and attitudes surrounding rape, and the extent to which a woman’s consent is, or should be considered, a factor in court.
Many of the men have admitted wrongdoing and, like Vincent C, even apologised to Gisèle Pelicot in the courtroom, but they have also insisted that since they didn’t intend to rape, they should not be found guilty of it.
In a bleak trial about extraordinary allegations of drugs and rape, it was time to show more of Dominique Pelicot’s carefully curated home videos.
Those videos, filmed by Pelicot and kept on a hard drive that he labelled “abuse”, document assaults on his ex-wife, Gisèle, over the course of a decade.
Fifty men are accused of raping her after she was drugged and left unconscious in the couple’s bed by her husband.
Now 72, Gisèle Pelicot has waived her anonymity so the full details of what she was subjected to can be revealed to the French public. Her lawyers fought to have videos of the crimes screened in court.
Although the judge had earlier said people “of a sensitive disposition” would be able to leave, one of Gisèle Pelicot’s legal team said many had decided to “look the rape straight in the eye”.
Many of the men recruited by her ex-husband on the internet insist they did not believe what they were doing was rape.
Dominique Pelicot sat behind a glass panel, slumped in his chair. His grey hair neatly cut, his left hand raised to block his view of the screen.
Gisèle Pelicot sat on the opposite side of the court, her head against the wall, her eyes occasionally closed. A blank, unreadable expression on her face.
On the screen, in near silence, a short, pale man wearing only blue underpants and black socks, could be seen approaching a bed.
The camera wobbled as it followed him. Behind the man, a woman lay on her left side, almost naked, on a crumpled white sheet. And then, without edits, without any blurring, the sex acts began.
At times, later in the video, you could clearly hear the woman snoring.
In court, Dominique Pelicot appeared to place both hands over his ears. For years he had laced his wife’s food and drink with an anti-anxiety drug, which made her unconscious and seriously affected her health.
This and other videos, shown in court and on Gisèle Pelicot’s insistence to the public watching from an overflow room near by, lie at the heart of the prosecution’s case.
Prosecutors argue that all 50 men who accepted online invitations from Pelicot to visit the family home in the village of Mazan, near Avignon, must have known his wife was unconscious.
Therefore, they must have realised that she was not a consenting partner in some kind of sex game in which she merely pretended to be asleep. Therefore, they must have intended to rape her.
But a string of defence lawyers and their clients have now sought to challenge that.
The man visible on screen in this particular video was a 43-year-old carpenter, named in court as Vincent C.
He stood now in front of the judges in a separate glass-walled area at the rear of the courtroom, with his head bowed down, looking away from the screen.
“Do you recognise the facts of aggravated rape that you are accused of?” asked lead judge Roger Arata – an affable figure with a large white moustache.
“No,” Vincent C replied.
His explanation, delivered haltingly, amounted to a hazy assumption that, since Dominique Pelicot had told him his wife was a consenting partner in a sex game, he had not given the matter any more thought.
At this point Gisèle Pelicot left the courtroom for a few minutes, saying “I can’t bear that man”.
Vincent C acknowledged the experience was “weird,” and unlike anything he had encountered with other couples. And yet, he went on, “I didn’t say to myself: this isn’t going well... I don’t think [about much else] in those moments."
However, having spoken to his mother and to lawyers, and watching the trial unfold, Vincent C said he had come to understand more about French law, the meaning of rape and the gravity of his actions.
“Now that I am being told how the events unfolded, yes, the acts I committed would amount to rape."
“Are you aware that Gisèle Pelicot was a victim of your acts?” asked the judge.
“Yes.”
Outside the courtroom, a lawyer representing another of the accused men distinguished between Pelicot and the others.
“Today it’s clear that Dominique Pelicot’s position is to try to dilute his responsibility by dragging down 50 other men. [Gisèle] is the victim. The question is whether the others were complicit in it or were tricked into participating,” said Paul-Roger Gontard.
While some of the accused have admitted to rape, others have claimed to have spoken or interacted with Gisèle Pelicot in the bedroom.
“So, there are grey zones in this trial,” Mr Gontard continued, pointing to the fact that the videos themselves had already been edited by Pelicot himself, meaning that evidence potentially helpful for the defence could have been cut out.
“He selected what he wanted to keep. He selected the shots. But don’t let that fool you. Everyone says he’s very manipulative.
"Many [of the accused] thought it was a libertine project with the couple, only to discover it was actually a sinister and criminal scheme devised by the husband.
“The question today is when did they realise something was wrong? This realisation varies among [the accused]. The question often arises – why didn’t they leave? It’s not that simple to leave at that moment when faced with a clearly dominant personality in a situation where they are naked and recorded by a camera,” the lawyer added.
The words of Gisèle Pelicot - "I was sacrificed on the altar of vice" - have been put up in a street in Avignon
Image source,Marianne Baisnée/BBC
Image caption,
The words of Gisèle Pelicot - "I've been sacrificed on the altar of vice" - have been put up in a street in Avignon
Ten minutes’ drive from the courthouse, in a small house in a suburb of Avignon, another of the accused, who has already testified in the trial, agreed to speak to the BBC on condition of anonymity. The man, a nurse by profession, portrayed himself as a victim of Dominique Pelicot.
“I was terrified… I was reduced to the state of an instrument. He was the one who told me: ‘do this.’ I said to myself, this man is not normal, he is a psychopath. It is an ambush, a trap. He is going to kill me in this house,” said the accused man.
He also claimed that Gisèle Pelicot had “reacted to simple caresses… she scratches herself with a co-ordinated movement”, which he said led him to believe that she was conscious and merely pretending to sleep.
When I challenged him, suggesting he was simply seeking to present himself as a victim to avoid culpability, he insisted that was not the case.
He lashed out, repeatedly, at the way the trial was being conducted, at alleged “pseudo-feminists”, and the “hysteria” the media had generated.
Speaking forcefully, but occasionally sobbing, he maintained he was not a rapist. However, he acknowledged that “I will never be considered innocent in this case. I will always carry my guilt with me. I know that.”
The trial in Avignon is set to continue for many more weeks, with a verdict due shortly before Christmas.
Only half of the accused have so far been called to testify, but already this case has revealed, in the grimiest detail, the horrors to which Gisèle Pelicot was subjected, and her extraordinary courage in declining her right to privacy.
The case has also highlighted longstanding debates about French laws and attitudes surrounding rape, and the extent to which a woman’s consent is, or should be considered, a factor in court.
Many of the men have admitted wrongdoing and, like Vincent C, even apologised to Gisèle Pelicot in the courtroom, but they have also insisted that since they didn’t intend to rape, they should not be found guilty of it.
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we should round up 50% of all middle aged men and shoot them dead or castrate them - or just put the stuff in water like we do with flouride. the amount of abuse that seems to go in apparently 'normal' environments by 'everyday' perpetrators is off the scale.
(obviously i would not be in the 50% because its my idea).
(obviously i would not be in the 50% because its my idea).
Reading the headline was enough for me. I couldn't go any further. Feck
This is what baffles me. Of the 80 plus men. Not 1 was a goodie. If there were even 20 percent good guys then surely he would have been caught or at least reported. But the fact no one did that implies there must be 1 good man amongst hundreds/thousands? What is it 5 percent?10 percent? Is everyone a bunch of rapist arseholes? Same with things like Epstein/P diddy etc. They say they were protected by powerful people. So there wasn't 1 powerful person saying fk no? It makes me wonder about this world we are in.
I don't think they're 80 men chosen at random. He recruited them via social media, dating apps, one of the chat rooms he was using was called, "without her knowledge". All the more reason to think they knew the score, but maybe also part of the reason why even someone who suspected it wasn't "just a game" was too ashamed or scared to report it.
I don't know who protected Epstein or P.Diddy etc but "hiding in plain sight" is part of the story. If "everyone knows" is part of the excuse then "everyone knows what they're getting into by going" is the next element.
Then there's the question of the criminal justice system, you need evidence as a victim or an eye witness. Either way you were there and you were there (at least initially) as a willing guest and as a witting one because "everyone knows" and maybe you took drugs willingly. Same with making allegations publicly if you don't have proof. Back up "everyone knows" with money to try and pay off victims/witnesses and lawyers to match any would be accuser. Protection isn't that hard to imagine. Even if the case doesn't run into a judge or someone who could themselves be a blackmail or bribery target.
On an individual abuser level in the UK, Jimmy Saville survived for years against a background of "everybody knew" and what a criminal court would call hearsay. In the end knowing also involves moving past victim blaming (which definitely happened in the Saville case) into abuser blaming.
I remember a story years ago about a transvestite in Germany who put out an ad pretending to be a woman wanting sex. Now, you'd think that the men turning up, discovering that the woman they were coming to have sex with was in fact a man, would do a 180 and get the hell out of there. Well, you'd be wrong. The transvestite kept meticulous records which showed that the vast majority of the men stayed and had sex with him/her.
Unfortunately it seems that decent men are actually rather rare. It’s sad.
That's not true, the vast majority are, but that's not news so you don't really hear about it
I have absolutely no idea how that story is relevant? On one side you have a transvestite engaging in consensual intercourse, on the other a serious of terrible rapes.
I suppose I didn't make my point clear. The question was why none of the men in this case had a pang of conscience and put a halt to it. They were there to have sex. It seems that the urge is so overwhelming that even the change of circumstances in the case of the transvestite didn't deter most of the men. So, when the men in this case, whose fetish involves having sex with an unconscious woman (whether they believe it's real or playacting) arrive to carry out their fantasy, it's incredibly unlikely that they will not follow through with it.
It's impossible to know how many did think she was just role-playing, knew she was unconscious or didn't care either way. And seemingly people do think 'might as well since I'm here' and go through with it regardless, like your example.
The fact people knew the circumstances were weird and yet went ahead while being filmed naked essentially by a stranger is another remarkable part of this whole crazy story.
Husband got 20 years, with co-defendants getting between 5-13 years.
Read all about it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cnv35lp14z9t
Read all about it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cnv35lp14z9t
Unbelievably shocking case. They deserved more. Chemical castration comes to mind.
20 years is not enough.
These guys should never see the light of the day again. Ever.
These guys should never see the light of the day again. Ever.
the justice system continues to be a joke
The spirit and strength it took for her to fight it out this way, sitting in court each day and insisting that the court was open to the press is inspiring. It's an otherwise awful case populated by a succession of awful men from different backgrounds and different walks of life
The only positives you can draw from this is that it might save some other women and it might help educate some men. I wish her and her children all the best in their futures. I hope their strength and their love for each other will help them to look after each other and their families as well.
The only positives you can draw from this is that it might save some other women and it might help educate some men. I wish her and her children all the best in their futures. I hope their strength and their love for each other will help them to look after each other and their families as well.
The other awful thing about this case is that it makes it clear that the most depraved and disgusting shit is definitely happening. There are probably some unimaginably horrific ordeals being suffered in "developed" societies right now.
As the son of Gisèle Pelicot said, people don't find things they aren't looking for. And how can you look for something unimaginable?
As the son of Gisèle Pelicot said, people don't find things they aren't looking for. And how can you look for something unimaginable?
20 years is a joke.
Blame the law, that was the maximum sentence, and the chances are he'll die in prison given he'd be 92 by the time it's served
Co-defendants are only getting 5-13. This is not your typical sexual abuse case. It's sexual exploitation. There aren't any provision for the more severe sexual crimes. They all fall into the same category with the same maximum sentence. All sexual crimes are equally traumatic but this was a whole other caliber and the punishment shouldn't fall in the same category when this incident was drastically more heinous. The judge should be able take into consideration how sadistic in nature this ordeal was when sentencing.