French Trial: Woman Testifies About Being Drugged by Husband and Raped by 50 Strangers

A French woman whose husband admitted in court that he repeatedly drugged her to allow other men to rape her gave evidence about her years of suffering at the public trial of 51 alleged abusers, including himself.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, testified for the first time Thursday at the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, southern France, recounting the moment police showed her photos revealing a decade of sexual abuse apparently orchestrated and filmed by her husband.

“My world fell apart, everything I had built with Mr. Pelicot collapsed. Three children, seven grandchildren… Even our friends told us we were the perfect couple,” she said, according to French newspaper La Depeche du Midi.

Pelicot and her husband of 50 years were living in the family home in the village of Mazan in Provence when the gruesome abuse, which allegedly took place between 2011 and 2020, came to light.

Police arrested 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot after he was caught taking photos up women’s skirts in a supermarket. Investigators searched his phone and computer, finding thousands of photos and videos of men raping his visibly intoxicated wife.

The plaintiff, who consented to the publication of her full name, was summoned to the police station in the nearby commune of Carpentras, where she was shown photographs.

The mother of three told the court that at first she didn’t recognise herself. When she got to the third photo, she told the officer to stop. “These are rape scenes, I’m limp, I’m asleep and they’re raping me. Rape is the wrong word, it’s barbaric,” she told him.

The police, as she herself said, “saved my life” by examining her husband’s computer.

On the third day of the trial, Tuesday, her husband answered affirmatively when asked whether he was guilty of the charges against him.

The pensioner documented her activities on her hard drive in a folder titled “abuse”, which allowed police to track down the men they suspected of raping her while she was drugged.

Investigators counted approximately 200 cases of rape, mostly by the plaintiff’s husband and more than 90 by strangers whose names appeared on the adult website.

The plaintiff insisted that the hearing be held in public so that all the facts of the case could be known.

Stephane Babonneau, one of her two lawyers, said she faces “an extremely difficult time” as she gives evidence.

She remained silent for the first three days of the trial, communicating through her lawyers.

Defense attorneys on Wednesday asked investigators whether Pelicot and her husband had an abusive relationship and whether it was credible that she did not notice anything during a decade of abuse.

The questioning clearly upset her, although she continued to do so as her three children left the courtroom in disgust.

“Of course she was offended,” said Antoine Camus, her other lawyer, who said his client wanted to respond. “We felt her jumping up and down behind us, saying, ‘I want to respond, I just have to respond,’ and we told her, ‘Tomorrow!’”

Eighteen of the 51 defendants, including the plaintiff’s husband, are in custody, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men. The last, still at large, will be tried in absentia.

Most of the suspects face up to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape if convicted.

The trial is expected to last four months, until December 20.