Gisele Pelicot explains why she wanted her husband’s mass rape trial in France to be held in public view

Gisele Pelicot, the woman at the center of mass rape trial that shocked his own country of France and the world, told her husband in court Wednesday that she still “didn’t understand why” he drugged and raped her for nearly a decade, along with dozens of other men he invited to his home.

“My life has disintegrated,” she said in court in Avignon as her husband, Dominique, bowed his head. “I have always tried to elevate you. You have reached the depths of the human soul – but unfortunately, it was you who made that choice.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself, get through all of this,” she said Wednesday. “At almost 72 years old, I don’t know if I have enough life left to recover.”

Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife regularly between 2011 and 2020 so that he and dozens of other men could rape her.

The youngest of the other 49 defendants, Joan K., who was 22 at the time, was absent at the birth of her daughter when one of her alleged assaults allegedly occurred, French news agency AFP said citing prosecutors during the trial.

“It’s not up to us to feel ashamed”

Gisele Pelicot has been revered in France and around the world for insisting that the trial be open to the public – which is not, by default, the way sexual assault cases are handled in France.

She said in court on Wednesday, according to French newspaper Le Monde, that she wanted the proceedings to be public in the hope that “all women victims of rape can say to themselves: ‘Madame Pelicot did this, so we we can do it.”‘

“I don’t want them to feel ashamed anymore. It’s not up to us to feel shame – it’s up to them (sexual offenders),” she said. “Above all, I express my will and determination to change this society.”

She went into harrowing detail about how her husband put drugs in her food.

“We drank a glass of white wine together. I never found anything strange in my potatoes,” she told the court, although she refused to look at Dominique. “We finished eating. Often when there was a football match on TV, I would let him watch it alone. He would bring my ice cream to my bed where I was. My favorite flavor – raspberry – and I thought, ‘How lucky I am. He’s a sweetheart.'”

“I never felt my heart flutter. I didn’t feel anything. I must have fallen asleep very quickly. I woke up in my pajamas,” she said, adding that she sometimes woke up “more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and I thought that was it.”

“I’m trying to understand,” she said, “how this husband, who was the perfect man, could come to this.”

“No defense possible”

The trial, which is expected to continue until December 20, has sparked protests across France. On Saturday, protesters gathered in front of dozens of courts to denounce the “culture of rape” in France.

There is hope among some protesters that the Pelicot case could lead to changes to controversial French laws governing sexual consent.

Until another high-profile rape trial in 1980 triggered a change, the crime of rape in France had been narrowly defined by a Napoleonic-era law as “illicit coitus with a woman known not to consent,” according to the French national radio broadcaster. RFI.

Only in 2021 did France introduce a legal age of sexual consent – ​​and only after a public outcry over the rape of an 11-year-old schoolgirl by a man who was initially convicted only of the lesser charge of sexual assault.

An adult having sex with anyone under the age of 15 has been considered non-consensual since the law was changed. Unlike many European countries, however, French law does not yet refer to consent in cases involving older victims.

French law defines rape as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”, according to the Reuters news agency, but does not take consent into account. Prosecutors must therefore prove intent to rape, legal experts told Reuters.

According to a study by the Public Policy Institute, only 14% of rape accusations in France lead to formal investigations.

“Why can’t we get convictions? The first reason is the law,” legal expert Catherine Le Magueresse told Reuters. “The law is written in such a way that victims must fulfill the stereotype of a ‘good victim’ and a ‘real rape’: an unknown assailant, use of violence and resistance from the victim. of rape.”

Lawyers for some of Dominique Pelicot’s 49 alleged accomplices – most of whom denied the rape allegations – said they thought their wife was sleeping, participating in a fetishistic act, or that Dominique’s consent was sufficient.

Gisele Pelicot’s testimony on Wednesday was the second time she addressed the court. She told the chamber in September that she felt “humiliated” by the defendants’ lawyers.

“I’ve been called an alcoholic. They say I’m Mr. Pelicot’s accomplice,” she said, shouting, “Rape is rape!”

Gisele Pelicot was greeted upon arriving at court on Wednesday by a crowd that offered applause and support, as they have done on most days of the trial.