‘I never gave consent’: Gisèle Pélicot calls accused men ‘degenerates’ in mass rape trial
This article contains distressing details.
Gisèle Pélicot, the former wife of a French man accused of drugging and raping her, and inviting dozens of men to do the same, told a court on Wednesday that she never gave consent.
Speaking at the trial of her former husband, Dominique Pélicot, and the 50 men he allegedly invited to rape her, Gisèle said: “I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr Pélicot or those other men.”
“These men are degenerates,” she added of her ex-husband's co-defendants.
"When they see a woman sleeping on her bed, no one thought to question themselves? Don’t they have brains?
“I have felt humiliated while I’ve been in this courtroom. I have been called an alcoholic, a conspirator of Mr Pélicot.
“In the state I was in, I absolutely could not respond. I was in a comatose state; the videos show that.”
Gisèle has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France for agreeing to waive her anonymity in the case and let the trial be public.
Pélicot admitted to all charges as he gave evidence at his trial in France on Tuesday in a case that shocked the country.
The 71-year-old pleaded with his former wife, and their three children, for forgiveness.
"Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist," Pélicot told the court. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”
Pélicot was caught by a security guard in 2020 taking videos under women’s skirts in a supermarket, according to court documents.
Police searched his house and electronic devices, and found thousands of photos and videos of men engaging in sexual acts with his ex-wife while she appears to lie unconscious on their bed. The offences are understood to have taken place over almost a decade.
With the recordings, police were able to track down a majority of the 72 suspects they were seeking.
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This comes after some 700 people gathered at Place de la République in Paris in support for Gisèle and all rape victims in France.
Some carried banners that hailed her for speaking out about her horrific ordeal and assured other victims of sexual violence that they are not alone.
“It’s very important to be here because we need to talk about the rape culture,” said Anna Toumazoff, an activist and one of the organisers of the Paris protest.
“After seven years of MeToo, we know that there is not a special type of victim. We are also collectively realising that there is no special type of a rapist.” she added.
Despite several waves of the #Metoo reckoning in France, which featured several high profile women speaking publicly about the trauma they’ve endured after years of sexual abuse, protesters said that much of the violence remains unreported and often goes unpunished.
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