WARNING: DISTRESSING DETAILS. Gisèle Pélicot, 72, was allegedly drugged by her own husband at their home in France and raped by more than 50 strangers over 10 years
Gisèle Pélicot is the brave mother-of-three at the centre of the disturbing rape trial that has horrified the world.
The 72-year-old woman was allegedly drugged by her own husband and raped 92 times by strangers he invited into their bedroom between 2011 and 2020. Ms Pélicot was sedated before she was sexually abused dozens of times at their family home in Mazan, a commune in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France, a court heard.
Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pélicot, 71, is said to have advertised online for participants to perform sexual acts on his unwitting partner. He is currently on trial accused of organising the sex ring, alongside 51 other men involved – aged between 26 and 73 – who have been identified and arrested.
Ms Pélicot bravely waived her legal right to anonymity on Monday morning at the opening trial in court. Presiding Judge Roger Arata announced that Ms Pélicot would be granted her wish for ‘full publicity’ until the end of the trial. “Proceedings will be public,” said the judge, who is president of a bench composed of five professional magistrates.
The mother-of-three’s lawyer, Antoine Camus, said of Ms Pélicot’s brave decision: “She could have opted for a closed trial, but that’s what her attackers would have wanted.” Despite this, the trial will be a “horrible ordeal”, Mr Camus said, adding: “For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years.”
The Pélicots lived in a large family home, around 70 miles from Marseille, and were seen as a respectable retired couple with three adult children who visited regularly. They had met as sweethearts when they were both 18 and moved to Mazan from Paris in 1991. Their neighbours told the court they were ‘lovely people’ who regularly hosted pool parties.
But behind closed doors, Mr Pélicot is said to have sedated his wife by putting tablets of a powerful anxiolytic drug into her evening dinner. He then invited men from a depraved online forum into the couple’s bedroom. All were told to wash their hands, and not to wear aftershave, so she would not sense they were strangers as she was raped while unconscious, the court heard.
The sexual abuse was filmed and stored on a USB drive dubbed ‘Abuses’. Investigators only learned about the horror in 2020, when Pélicot was arrested in a supermarket in Carpentras for filming up the skirts of customers. When police searched his camera, phone and equipment at his home, they found 3,800 photos and videos of Ms Pélicot being raped.
Ms Pélicot has been supported by her adult children as she stands in the public gallery, listening to evidence. Today she took the stand for the first time and thanked the policeman who had arrested her husband in the supermarket. She said: “He saved my life and I probably wouldn’t be here without him.” She told the court she “never had any problems in 50 years” of marriage before Mr Pélicot was caught red-handed.
Jérémie Bosse Platière – the officer who first brought Mr Pélicot to justice – estimated that he ‘committed at least 200 acts of rape against his wife’ before strangers began to arrive at their home. Alleged rapists involved include civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, a journalist, a municipal councillor, and truck drivers.
On Monday, November 2, 2020, Ms Pélicot was told of what the police had found. She described the moment she shared the news with her daughter, Caroline Darian, in court. “When I told my daughter, she screamed like a wild beast. I will never forget this,” she said.
“When I told my sons about this, I don’t think they really understood, they were withdrawn and didn’t react much. I think they were in a state of shock. They said, ‘Don’t say such silly things’. That evening, the children rang all the time saying don’t disappear – they were worried I might die.”
Ms Pélicot’s daughter Caroline has recalled her side of the story in her memoir, titled And I Stopped Calling You Daddy. In it, she describes her mother as “sunny, funny and dynamic” – and strong. “Even the day when she learned that one of her rapists had HIV, she didn’t collapse,” she writes in a copy obtained by The Telegraph.
She tells how her father allegedly recruited dozens of men on web forums to rape her mother “for no financial gain”. Caroline writes: “Ultimate perversity. Father, who always had money problems, didn’t profit from Maman. He did it purely for his pleasure.”
The trial continues and is due to last until December.
If you are affected by the issues raised in this article, contact SARSAS on info@sarsas.org.uk or reach out for NHS advice on help after rape or sexual assault.
