Gisèle Pelicot denounced the “cowards” alleged to have raped her and said she would have to live with having been “defiled” by her ex-husband and dozens of men for the rest of her life.
The French grandmother, 72, was giving evidence at the trial of Dominique Pelicot, 71, her former husband, and the 50 other defendants that he allegedly invited into the family home to rape her while she was drugged with sedatives.
She told Avignon criminal court that she had suffered “acts of barbarity” and would not “feel at peace until the end of my life.” She added: “I’ll learn to live with it. I’ll rebuild myself. But there’ll forever be 51 people who have defiled me.”
Pelicot said that her husband used her to fulfil his “sexual fantasies”
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Judges have been told that Gisèle was