I never consented, woman tells French mass rape trial
The former wife of a French man accused of recruiting strangers to rape her while she was drugged has told a court she never consented and that the men who allegedly assaulted her were “degenerates”.
Appearing at the trial of her former husband, Dominique Pélicot, and of 50 men he allegedly invited to rape her, Gisèle Pélicot, 72, said: “I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr Pélicot or those other men.”
Dominique Pélicot, 71, has admitted drugging his then wife with sedatives and anti-anxiety medication to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers who he recruited in chatrooms could allegedly rape her between 2011 and 2020.
The 50 men, aged between 26 and 74, with professions ranging from fire officer to journalist, are alleged to have been recruited by Pélicot, who said they knew they were being invited to commit rape. Some of the accused men have admitted Pélicot told them he was drugging his wife, but others have said they believed they were participating in a couple’s organised game.
Gisèle Pélicot said she felt humiliated by questioning from defence lawyers who had argued that the men may have made an error of judgment, or thought she was drunk or pretending to be asleep and complicit.
“I have felt humiliated while I’ve been in this courtroom. I have been called an alcoholic, a conspirator of Mr Pélicot,” she said, adding her life had been “destroyed” for 10 years. “In the state I was in, I absolutely could not respond. I was in a comatose state; the videos show that.”
She said of the men on trial: “These men are degenerates. They committed rape … When they see a woman sleeping on her bed, no one thought to ask themselves a question? Don’t they have brains?” She added: “When does a husband decide for his wife?”
Although she had unexplained memory lapses and gynaecological problems for years, Pélicot said she had been unaware of the alleged rapes until police found images on her husband’s computer and told her.
Her ex-husband again asked for her forgiveness in court, but she looked at the ground without reacting.
Asked about remarks by one defence lawyer who had said in court that “there’s rape and there’s rape” in a possible attempt to back up some of the men’s claims that they assumed they were participating in a couple’s game, Pélicot said: “No, there are no different types of rape,” she said. “Rape is rape.”
The lawyer subsequently apologised, saying he had wanted to distinguish the legal definition of rape from the “media” definition.
The court was shown explicit images of Gisèle Pélicot, who said she had had no knowledge of the photographs being taken by her husband, raising the question of whether she was sedated when they were taken.
Dominique Pélicot told the court he had taken the photos without her knowledge.
Defence lawyers asked Gisèle Pélicot if she understood that men who saw such photos online could think she wanted a sexual encounter even while drugged. She said men could “ask whether I consented”.
Pélicot said she felt she was being accused of being the guilty party in the courtroom, while the 50 men accused of rape alongside her husband sat observing. She said she understood why women hesitated about filing rape complaints.
She has requested that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
The trial continues until December.
‘I have felt humiliated in this court. I’ve been called a conspirator of Mr Pélicot’
Gisèle Pélicot Alleged victim