Gisèle Pélicot says French police saved her life when they investigated husband, who drugged her and enlisted men to rape her
Gisèle Pélicot, with her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau in Avignon, has waived her right to anonymity for the trial to be held in public.Gisèle Pélicot, with her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau in Avignon, has waived her right to anonymity for the trial to be held in public.
Recounting the moment in November 2020 when police first showed her images of a decade of sexual abuse orchestrated by her husband, Pélicot, who had been drugged to the point of unconsciousness, told the court: “My world fell apart. For me, everything was falling apart. Everything I had built up over 50 years.”
She told a panel of five judges that she had only found the courage to watch the footage in May this year. “Frankly, these are scenes of horror for me,” she said.Referred to by her first name in court, Gisèle Pélicot has waived her right to anonymity in order for the trial to be held in public, with the support of her three adult children. She said she was testifying “for all women” who had been assaulted while drugged and to ensure “no woman suffers this”.
The accused men recruited by her husband were instructed to avoid smelling of any kind of fragrance or cigarette smoke to avoid alerting his wife and to leave if she moved so much as an arm, investigators said. Fifty men are on trial for allegedly taking part in the rape and abuse. Asked by the judge if she had experienced gynaecological issues, Gisèle Pélicot said yes. She said medical tests during the police investigation showed she had been infected with several sexually transmitted diseases.She said in the hours after being told by police what had happened to her she felt like dying. She described how she had to explain the trauma to her adult children, saying her daughter’s scream “was etched into my memory”.
The 50 men on trial with her husband include a local councillor, nurses, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, soldier, firefighter and civil servant, many of whom lived around Mazan, a town of about 6,000 inhabitants. The men were aged between 26 and 73 at the time of their arrests.
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