Emmanuel Macron spoke out on Friday, a day after the brave victim Gisele Pelicot faced down her depraved now ex-husband Dominique and the 50 attackers as they were found guilty of drugging and raping her
French president Emmanuel Macron has issued a moving “thank you” to mass rape victim Gisele Pelicot after her sick attackers were jailed.
Mr Macron spoke out on Friday, a day after the brave victim faced down her depraved now ex-husband Dominique, 72, and the 50 attackers who were found guilty of drugging and inviting strangers to rape her.
Writing on X, he said: “Thank you Gisèle Pélicot. For this word of justice in the name of which you faced the ordeal with your head held high. For women, who forever have a scout to speak and fight for. For all of us, because your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.”
Despite the outpouring of support, her ordeal may not yet be over as she could yet face appeals from the convicted men, who were handed sentences totalling of 428 years on Thursday. They have ten days to launch them. Her husband’s lawyer has said he may do so after being shocked to be given the maximum 20 year sentence amid suggestions he will not be released if still considered a danger.
It comes as psychologists who interviewed Pelicot explained his complex psychological issues, positing that sexual abuse he claimed to have experienced as a child likely ‘sharpened’ traits that led him to become the man who so heinously abused his own wife.
Dr Laurent Layet – one of the first doctors to interview with Pelicot following his arrest in 2020 for taking photos up women’s skirts in a shopping centre – said he encouraged authorities to further investigate the man whom he said showed ‘no signs of severe mental illness’.
Dr Layet declared that Pelicot exhibited ‘egomania, narcissistic fragility, emotional disorders… an abnormal sexual deviancy combining candaulism [exposing your female partner to others for sexual enjoyment], voyeurism and somnophilia.’
Pelicot is definitely not ‘mad’, and cannot chalk his crimes up to mental illness, the psychologist said. But he added that the ‘Monster of Avignon’, as he has come to be known, is a misplaced moniker – claiming Pelicot had developed two completely distinct personalities.
Dr Layet told the BBC that he witnessed a ‘fissure’ in Pelicot’s psyche, explaining how he had developed two ‘water-tight parts… with no leakage between them. His split personality is very effective and very solid. We either have the ”normal Mr Pelicot” or the other Mr Pelicot at night, in the bedroom.’
