A WOMAN has had to watch sick videos of herself after being allegedly drugged so her husband could “film 72 men raping her”.
Gisele Pélicot, 72, waived her legal right to anonymity on Monday at the opening of the trial of Dominique Pélicot, 71, and 51 other men.
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All are accused of aggravated rape in a trial at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, which is due to last for four months.
Asked to confirm his name and address at the start of proceedings, Pélicot said: “My home is prison, you know it”.
The husband allegedly invited the men he met online to assault his wife Gisele after slipping Lorazepam into her food to knock her out.
He is said to have then filmed the horrid attacks over nine years between 2011 and 2020.
And now, before bravely facing her husband at trial, Gisele was shown the horror videos to prepare her for what would be shown in court.
The wife’s lawyer, Antoine Camus, said: “She could have opted for a closed trial, but that’s what her attackers would have wanted.
Still, he said, Gisele’s trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her.
“For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” Camus said, adding that his client had “no recollection” of the alleged abuse which she only discovered in 2020.
Another of her lawyers said outside court revealed that re-watching footage of her assault was “difficult, for her and for all the family” but “today the trial begins and the process must go ahead”.
They continued: “In terms of her mood, there is already a sense of relief that the trial is public, and that she won’t be in court alone over four months with her attackers.
“So that provides some comfort. She’s also preparing herself, she knows her words will be highly scrutinised, and will lead to questioning by the defence.
“So today she’s getting ready, she wants to express herself, and she will take the time to do so when it is asked of her and we expect that to happen quite rapidly this week.”
According to Gisele’s lawyer, Stephane Babonneau, presiding judge Roger Arata announced that all hearings would be public, approving Gisele’s request to waive her anonymity and maintain “complete publicity until the end” of the court case.
Ms Babonneau added: “She was dreading this moment but is relieved that the hearing is open and that she will not be locked up for four months with her assailants.
“She wants to raise awareness as widely as possible about date rape drugs so that this never happens again.”
Gisele yesterday told the court how she felt when she discovered the real cause of her physical and mental torment.
She said: “He disgusts me. I feel dirty, defiled, betrayed. It was a tsunami, I was hit by a high-speed train.”
On the outside, the Pélicots appeared to be well-respected pensioners with frequent visits from family members, sharing a spacious family home.
According to court documents, their neighbours described them as “lovely people” who hosted parties in their well-kept lawn around their swimming pool.
It is said that Pélicot was an alleged multiple rapist who relocated his family from the greater Paris area in 1991 and then established the alleged sex ring.
It involved placing advertisements for “partners” on the web forym called “Without Her Knowing”.
Twenty of the 51 accused individuals—including Pélicot—are being held in custody, while the others remain on bail.
Police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom were identified and are being tried alongside the main suspect, a former employee at France‘s power utility company EDF.
Pélicot’s lawyer Béatrice Zavarro told reporters on Monday morning that her client felt huge remorse.
“He is ashamed of what he has done, it’s unforgivable,” she said, adding that his criminal acts were part of “a form of addiction”.
Ms Zavarro went to explain: “My client’s line of conduct is that he recognises what he has done and that has not been in dispute one iota since the beginning.”
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After being married for two years since meeting in 1971, the pair went on to have three children together.
Gisele had earlier claimed that she had turned down her husband’s offer to try swinging.
But she also called him a “great guy” with a “normal sexuality”.
Their daughter talked warmly of her father’s influence on her life as a young girl, while their eldest son claimed that nothing in his father’s actions indicated any deviation and that “he had always fulfilled his role as a father.”
When the family moved to Mazan two years later, the horrific campaign of alleged sexual abuse directed by Pélicot is believed to have started in 2011 while they were residing close to Paris.
Cops launched an investigation When a security officer discovered the pensioner secretly recording three women’s skirts in a shopping centre in September 2020.
On his computer, hundreds of images and videos of his wife—mostly in the foetal position and clearly unconscious—were discovered, according to the police.
The pictures allegedly depicted numerous rapes that took place at the couple’s house in Mazan, a 6,000-person hamlet in Provence some 20 miles from Avignon.
Investigators also discovered talks on a website called coco.fr, which the police have since taken down, where he allegedly invited strangers to his house so he could have sex with his wife.
Investigators were then informed by Pélicot that he had given his wife strong tranquillizers, including the anxiety-relieving medication Temesta.
Prosecutors claim that the husband participated in the rapes, recorded them, and used degrading language to encourage the other men.
He described at earlier hearings the many measures he used to keep his wife and family from learning of his terrible activities.
According to French outlet Le Point, Pélicot put severe restrictions on all the men he invited to rape his wife: no cigarettes or perfume, neat and clipped nails, and a hot water bath before touching the victim to avoid waking her.
How you can get help
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
They were also allegedly instructed not to wear aftershave, so Gisele wouldn’t sense they were strangers.
After parking a few minutes from the couple’s home, the alleged attackers would undress in the kitchen.
There was no exchange of money.
A journalist, a fire brigade official, a firm CEO, and a forklift driver were among the alleged rapists.
Some were family men, some were single, and some were married or divorced.
While most only took part once, some did so up to six times, it has been claimed.
While they have defended themselves by saying they were only assisting a libertine couple in fulfilling their dreams, Pélicot revealed to investigators that everyone knew his wife had been drugged without her permission.
Gisele’s condition “was closer to a coma than to sleep,” according to an expert.
Only three men fled the house immediately after they arrived, according to her husband’s testimony to the prosecutors, while the others continued to have sex with his wife.
Lawyer Beatrice Zavarro stated that Pélicot , who claimed he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine years old, is prepared to confront “his family and his wife.”
“My client’s line of conduct is that he recognises what he did and there has not been an ounce of protest since the beginning,” she said.
Dominique Pélicot is also accused of a 1991 murder and rape, both of which he denies, and a 1999 attempted rape, which he acknowledged following DNA testing.
Although examinations published in court documents reportedly found that the man had a need to feel ‘all-powerful’ over the female body, experts said the man did not appear to be mentally ill.
The shocking trial is due to last until December 20.
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