At the midway point of the mass rape trial that has shaken France, the woman at its centre, Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has taken to the stand at the court’s invitation to comment on and respond to the evidence and testimony the judges have heard so far.
Pelicot’s former husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71, has admitted drugging his then-wife to render her unconscious in order that he and dozens of strangers he found in online chatrooms could allegedly rape her, between 2011 and 2020.
The majority of the 50 other men on trial, aged between 26 and 74 and all allegedly recruited by Pelicot, have denied rape. Here are some of the key points of Gisèle Pelicot’s testimony this morning in Avignon, southern France.
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1. On who a rapist can be, and the effect of the evidence she has heard
After asking for the trial to be open to the public, Gisèle Pelicot has attended almost every day of proceedings since they began on 2 September. She said of what she had heard:
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.
When I saw one of the accused on the stand last week who came into my bedroom and house without consent …
This man, who came to rape an unconscious, 57-year-old woman – I am also a mother and grandmother. I could have been his grandmother.
I am a woman who is totally destroyed, and don’t know how I can pick myself up from this.
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2. On why she was taking a stand in public, and how she keeps going
I wanted all woman victims of rape – not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels – I want those woman to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too.
When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them.
It’s true that I hear lots of women, and men, who say you’re very brave. I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society.
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3. On what she feels about her former husband
Gisèle Pelicot said she wanted to address her ex-husband, who was in the courtroom and whom she called Dominique, but that she did not want to look at him. She said:
So many times, I said to myself how lucky am I to have you at my side. For me, he was someone I trusted entirely. How can the perfect man have got to this? How could you have betrayed me to this point? How could you have brought these strangers into my bedroom … ?
I wouldn’t have stayed 50 years if he had behaved like a violent brute. Like all couples, we had arguments. We got through lots of challenges, illness, work, money. He wasn’t a brute. He never hit me … This case for me is total incomprehension. I would never have imagined a man could do this.
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4. On how her ex-husband drugged her, and society’s poor understanding of rape
Often when there’s a football match on TV, I’d let him watch it alone. He brought my ice-cream to bed, where I was, my favourite flavour, raspberry. And I thought, ‘How lucky I am, he’s a love’ …
I never felt my heart flutter, I didn’t feel anything, I must have gone under very quickly. I would wake up with my pyjamas on. The mornings I must have been more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and thought it was that.
People should learn the definition of rape, she said, after hearing the partners and mothers of some of the accused speak in their defence. The men who came to assault her were defiling “an unconscious woman”. She said:
For me they are rapists, they remain rapists. Rape is rape … Of course today I feel responsible for nothing. Today, above all, I’m a victim … We have to progress on rape culture in society.
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5. On whether her ex-husband was motivated by revenge or an inferiority complex
Gisèle Pelicot once had an extramarital affair and was asked if her husband may have acted out of revenge. She replied:
I have often thought that maybe he never recovered from the fact that I had met someone in my life. I often felt responsible. I thought: was it not maybe revenge, because he had so suffered from that affair? But it was years later, we had talked about that. He had affairs as well. The first man I knew was my husband, the second was my lover. We had talked about that as well.
She was also asked if Dominique Pelicot, who called her “la bourgeoise”, may have felt an inferiority complex. She said:
It’s interesting. I’ve always liked going out well-dressed, I’ve always been like that in my life, at work, even today. When I go to the market, I am always well dressed. So if my way of dressing and way of being was bourgeoise … [But] I never felt an inferiority complex from him.