GISÈLE PELICOT LEFT court yesterday to cheers and applause after she took the stand in the mass rape trial of her former husband in France.

Walls around the southern French city of Avignon where the trial is being held were plastered with messages of support reading: “Gisèle, women thank you.”

Pelicot (71) has become a feminist icon in France for insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men should be held in public to draw attention to the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Last month, a court ruled that the public and media could be present when video evidence is screened, reversing an earlier decision.

“For Gisèle Pelicot, it is too late. The harm is done,” said her lawyer Stephane Babonneau when the decision was reversed to allow the video evidence to be screened in public.

“But if these same hearings, through their publicity, help prevent other women from having to go through this, then she will find meaning in her suffering.”

Demonstration in support of Gisele Pelicot at tghe Place de la Republique in Paris on 14 September Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Dominique Pelicot filmed much of the abuse against his then-wife and also took meticulous records of the strangers visiting their home, which subsequently helped police uncover the crimes.

He has admitted to drugging her for years to rape her or watch her being raped while unconscious by dozens of strangers he recruited online.

Gisèle Pelicot yesterday told a court in southern France that she was determined to “change society” for sex assault victims.

“I am a woman who is completely broken,” Gisèle Pelicot told the court in what was her second address to the trial on Wednesday.

“I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself,” she added. “I’m 72 soon and I’m not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this”.

However, she added that she has a “will” to change society.

“It’s true that I hear lots of women, and men, who say you’re very brave,” Pelicot remarked.

“I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society.”

She also expressed a desire to remove the shame and stigma felt by some rape victims.

“I wanted all woman victims of rape – not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels – I want those women to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too.

“It’s not us who should feel shame, but them (the perpetrators)”, she said.

She also remarked that the “profile of a rapist is not someone met in a car park late at night”.

“A rapist can also be in the family, among our friends.”

Some of the accused have admitted that Dominique Pelicot told them he was drugging his then-wife, while others claim they believed they were participating in a swinger couple’s fantasy.

“I’m trying to understand how my husband, who was the perfect man, became like this,” Gisèle Pelicot told the court yesterday.

“How my life changed. How you could allow these people into our house knowing that I disliked swinging.

“For me, this betrayal is immeasurable. After 50 years together… I used to think I was going to be with this man until the end.”

She then looked at her former husband, who looked away, and said: “I always tried to lift you higher. You plumbed the depths of the human soul, but unfortunately you made your own choices.”

Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging Gisèle and inviting men to rape her between 2011 and 2020.

But he insists he is no different from the dozens of other men he recruited online to take part in the sexual abuse, alleging they all knew what they were signing up for.

Many of his co-defendants deny this, accusing him of manipulating them into raping his spouse of half a century.

Forty-nine other men are accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisèle Pelicot – with nearly none of them admitting guilt.

One has admitted to sedating his own spouse so that he and Dominique Pelicot could sexually assault her.

The trial is scheduled to last until December.

-With additional reporting from © AFP 2024