A woman who was allegedly raped by dozens of strangers after being drugged by her own husband is facing them all at trial, which began in France this week.
Gisèle Pélicot, 72, waived her legal right to anonymity on Monday at the opening of the trial of her husband Dominique Pélicot, 71, and 50 other men.
Speaking in court on Thursday, Gisèle said her “world fell apart” when investigators first informed her of the years of alleged abuse planned and videotaped by Dominique.
“For me, everything was falling apart. Everything I had built up over 50 years,” she told the courtroom, according to The Guardian, adding that she only found the courage in May of this year to watch some of the footage uncovered by police.
“Frankly, these are scenes of horror for me.”
Read on to learn about this case, how Dominique’s alleged crimes were eventually exposed and what to expect from the lengthy trail that is expected to span months.
Almost a decade of alleged abuse
Prosecutors say the crimes that are now being examined at trial occurred over the course of nearly 10 years, with the first alleged assaults orchestrated by Dominique dating back to 2011.
His illicit operation, where he was alleged to have recruited men online to rape his wife after drugging her with sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, was discovered in 2020 after he was caught filming under women’s skirts in a shopping centre.
Police say they found evidence of the rapes after they seized his phone and computer. They claim they found thousands of photographs and videos of men appearing to rape Gisèle in their home while she was unconscious.
Investigators also found communications Dominique Pélicot allegedly sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals, in which he invited men to sexually abuse his wife. The website has been shut down.
During earlier questioning, Dominique told investigators that men invited to the couple’s home had to follow certain rules — they could not talk loudly, had to remove their clothes in the kitchen, and could not wear perfume nor smell of tobacco.
They sometimes had to wait up to an hour and a half in a nearby parking lot for the drug to take full effect and render Gisèle unconscious, he said.
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“I was sacrificed on the altar of vice,” she testified Thursday, reports The Associated Press. “They regarded me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag.”
Gisèle Pélicot, centre left, and her lawyer Stephane Babonneau speak to media in the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she lay unconscious is expected to testify before a panel of French judges.
Lewis Joly / The Associated Press
Dozens of suspects
While Dominique and 50 other men are now standing trial on charges of aggravated rape and face up to 20 years in prison, investigators believe Gisèle may have been raped 92 times by as many as 72 suspects over the years. Court documents show that the ages of the suspects range from 26 to 74 at the time of their arrests.
It took police a period of two years to track down the majority of the suspects, and several defendants are denying some of the accusations against them, alleging they were manipulated by Dominique.
The trial is expected to last into December, and each defendant will appear in small groups before a panel of five judges. Dominique is scheduled to speak next week and the court will also hear testimony from various psychiatrists, psychologists and computer experts.
A happy life shattered
On Thursday, Gisèle told the judges that she married her husband when they were both 21 and went on to have three children and seven grandchildren.
“We weren’t rich but we were happy. Even our friends said we were the ideal couple,” she said, reports The Guardian, adding that they were very supportive of each other over their 50 years of marriage.
She also said that while she didn’t know she was being regularly drugged, she began to feel the effects of what was unknowingly happening to her — she said she began to forget things more frequently and had trouble concentrating, as well as losing weight and developing difficulty controlling one arm.
She also told the judge she had contracted several sexually transmitted diseases, which came to light during the police investigation.
“When you see that woman drugged, mistreated, a dead person on a bed — of course the body is not cold, it’s warm, but it’s as if I’m dead.”
Hours after police told her of the allegations against her husband, Gisèle said she packed two suitcases and left her husband. Her adult children have stood by her side and supported her decision to have her name publicized during the trial.
The sons of Gisèle Pélicot, Florian, right, and David, left, and her daughter Caroline Darian, centre, arrive in the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Lewis Joly / The Associated Press
Her lawyer, Antoine Camus, said she did not want a trial behind closed doors because “that’s what her attackers would have wanted.”
Another one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, told CNN “she wanted it to be a public trial so that everyone can hear and get an idea of the excuses given by men in such circumstances.”
A long trial
If everything goes to plan, a verdict in the case is due on Dec. 20 of this year.
The 50 men on trial include a prison guard, a soldier, a firefighter, a former police officer, a journalist, nurses and a civil servant, with many of them living around the small French town, Mazan, the Pélicot family called home.
Christophe Huguenin-Virchaux, a lawyer for one of the men, told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday that his client “admits that sexual relations did in fact take place” but that they took place as part of a “sexual game between a husband and his wife that he was invited to,” adding that he was “not aware that Gisèle was drugged or under medication.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
