Paris:

The main defendant in a mass rape trial that has sparked horror and protests in France was absent on Monday because he is “unwell” and must undergo medical treatment, the presiding judge said.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, has been on trial since September 2 over raping and recruiting strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife Gisele for nearly a decade. 

The trial had already been briefly suspended in mid-September due to the absence of Dominique Pelicot, who was suffering from intestinal problems.

“He’s unwell. He has to have medical treatment this afternoon,” Judge Roger Arata said at the start of the hearing on Monday in the southeastern city of Avignon. “We’ll see tomorrow,” he added.

Dominique Pelicot had already been excused from the hearing on Friday to undergo a medical examination. 

His lawyer Beatrice Zavarro had told AFP on Sunday that the examination “went well.”

Pelicot has admitted to the charges against him.

He is being tried along with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74, many of whom have denied the rape charge. Most risk up to 20 years in jail if convicted of aggravated rape.

Seven more defendants will be called to testify on Thursday. 

Among them is 46-year-old Jerome V., a former grocery store employee, who sexually assaulted Gisele Pelicot six times in 2020 at the couple’s home in the town of Mazan in southeastern France.

Gisele Pelicot, Dominique’s ex-wife who only discovered the abuse in 2020 after being told of it by police, has requested that the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

“We are all Gisèle.” There has been an outpouring on the streets of France in support of 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot, who had been drugged and raped by her husband, Dominique Pelicot, and at least 50 others, in their home for over a decade. In an extraordinary act of courage, Ms. Pelicot waived anonymity and requested that the trial, which began early September, be made public.

She wants to raise awareness of the use of drugs to commit abuse, and as one of her lawyers said, hopes that “shame will change sides”. Spilling out of the chamber of horrors is the fact that Dominique Pelicot, 71, filmed Ms. Pelicot being sexually assaulted at least a 100 times as she lay in a drug-induced stupor; the evidence, thousands of photographs, was stored in Dominique Pelicot’s computer under the label ‘abuses’.

In her testimony, as reported in Le Monde, The Guardian and other newspapers, Ms. Pelicot said she “was sacrificed on the altar of vice” and treated “like a rag doll, like a garbage bag”. The assault came to light in 2020 after Dominique was caught filming up skirts of women, and the police searched his computer. Ms. Pelicot, who is since divorced but still uses her marriage name, said the discovery felt like everything she had built for five decades had fallen apart. In court, the husband pleaded guilty. “I put her to sleep, I offered her, and I filmed,” his lawyer quoted Dominique after his arrest. He had also filmed their daughter without her consent.

Trust was betrayed at so many levels, but nothing can be more appalling than the admission that between 2011 and 2020, at their home in Mazan in Provence, he crushed sleeping pills and anti-depressants, and mixed them in her evening meal or wine. Then, he invited men, contacted over an online chatroom, which has since shut down, to rape and sexually abuse her. There were dos and dont’s once the men entered the home — they couldn’t smell of deodorants or cigarette smoke.

Parents of three children and several grandchildren, the Pelicots were considered an “ideal couple”. Pointing out that she had no idea she was being drugged, Ms. Pelicot complained of neurological problems; doctors ruled out it was Alzheimer’s. She also suffered from gynaecological issues, suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.

Brave stand

But Ms. Pelicot’s brave stand of opening up her private nightmare to the public and her plaintive cry — “I don’t know if I’ll ever rebuild myself” — has struck a chord among hundreds of women across the world. She has been hailed as a “feminist icon” and a “heroine”; there is a quiet dignity about Ms. Pelicot, in dark glasses, as she arrives and leaves the courtroom.

The trial is expected to go on till December; if convicted of aggravated rape, Dominique and the 50 others face 20 years in prison under French laws. Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Fondation des Femmes, has been quoted in the media seeking a “comprehensive law against sexist and sexual violence.”

French women have marched on the streets, holding up banners, saying, “Rapist we see you, victim we believe you.” It has raised yet again several questions about women’s bodies and autonomy, the lack of concern in society about rampant sexual violence, misogyny, patriarchal mindsets, a culture of rape and violence (India too has a pressing problem on all these counts).

The 50 men on trial, aged between 26 and 73, along with her husband include a local councillors, nurses, a firefighter and a civil servant, The Guardian reported, noting that many of them lived around Mazan, a close-knit town of about 6,000 inhabitants. . At least 30 more could not be identified.

Women activists have pointed out that with seemingly “ordinary” men carrying out such brazen acts, it shatters the myth of monster rapists. They are also seeking a change in how media covers rape. “Shame must change sides,” as the protest slogan says; and for that to happen, the alleged perpetrators should be called out, not the victim.

Misogyny has long roots, historian Mary Beard had traced in her book, Women & Power: A Manifesto, but every generation of women usually paves a better way for the next. Ms. Pelicot has done her bit; it is France’s turn to mend its abysmal record in stopping sexual abuse and a prevalent rape culture as women activists have underscored.

Two defendants in a mass rape trial that has shocked France on Wednesday reluctantly admitted they had raped a man’s heavily sedated wife as they had not sought her consent.

The main defendant in the case, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot, has confessed to administering sedatives to his wife to rape her and inviting strangers to join in the sexual abuse from 2011 to 2020.

Another 49 men have also been charged with rape or attempted rape of his wife Gisele Pelicot.

The hearings began in early September in the southern city of Avignon.

Gisele Pelicot, who is also 71 and has since divorced her husband, requested the case be heard in public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

In court on Wednesday, the latest of the defendants, 43-year-old Husamettin D., was at first not prepared to accept the charges against him.

He recounted how Dominique Pelicot had invited him over after they met online in June 2019.

Husamettin D. said Dominique Pelicot told him his wife was next to him as they communicated via chat.

He added that he had received a message that read: “I am indeed his wife, and I agree to welcome you.”

Husamettin D. headed over to their home in the small town of Mazan that same evening, where he was led into the main bedroom.

“I started foreplay, I saw she didn’t react. I said, ‘She’s dead, your wife.’ (Dominique Pelicot) said, ‘No, you’re imagining it.’ He penetrated her and she lifted up her head a little,” Husamettin D. said.

The defendant added that they continued for at least half an hour, until he clearly heard Gisele Pelicot snoring. He then decided to leave, he said.

But he added: “I’m not a rapist, that’s too much for me to bear. It’s her husband. I never thought that guy could do that to his own wife.”

Reminded of the definition of rape by one of the judges, an act committed “through violence, constraint, threat or surprise”, Husamettin D. however conceded.

“Now I admit it was rape,” he said.

Mathieu D., 53, accepted the charges against him.

He said that Dominique Pelicot had told him his wife “would have been put to sleep by him administering her drugs” so that the couple could “later watch the videos together”.

He said he did not have the impression he was committing rape at the time, but later “realised” after being arrested that Gisele Pelicot had not given her consent.

Dominique Pelicot meticulously documented the abuse, with his pictures and videos later allowing investigators to identify dozens of suspects.

Police discovered he had been abusing his wife for almost a decade after he was detained in 2020 for filming up women’s skirts, or “upskirting”, in a local supermarket.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The mayor of the French town where a man for over a decade brought strangers to rape his wife apologised on Friday for remarks that were criticised for playing down the ordeal of the victim.

Louis Bonnet, 74, mayor of Mazan in southern France, told broadcaster BBC in an interview that “after all, no one died” about the mass rape for which dozens of men are on trial.

They are accused of raping Gisele Pelicot at the invitation of her then-husband Dominique Pelicot who drugged her first.

“It could have been far more serious,” Bonnet told the BBC. “There were no kids involved. No women were killed.”

Bonnet’s remark caused a storm of indignation on social media in France and beyond.

“People say I minimised the serious nature of the abject crimes of which the defendants are accused,” Bonnet said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“I understand that people are shocked by these remarks and I am truly sorry.”

The mayor said his apologies were addressed “notably to women who were hurt by the clumsy words that were pronounced under the pressure felt in front of the microphone of a foreign media”.

Mazan and its 6,000 residents had been under “constant media pressure” since the start of the mass rape trial this month, he said.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging Gisele Pelicot into unconsciousness and inviting strangers to rape her.

She has become a feminist icon since demanding a public trial.

The trial has horrified France, partly because 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants include apparently ordinary men such as a fireman, a nurse and a journalist, many of them with families.

Forty-nine co-defendants are accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisele Pelicot, and one is accused of imitating Dominique Pelicot to sexually assault his own wife.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Marseille, France:

Walking into court each day with her head held high, the ex-wife of a Frenchman on trial for orchestrating her mass rape in her own bed for almost a decade has become a feminist icon.

With her now trademark auburn bob and dark glasses, 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot has become a figurehead in the battle against the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Her life was shattered in 2020 when she discovered that her partner of five decades had for years been secretly administering her large doses of tranquilisers to rape her and invite dozens of strangers to join him.

But she has decided not to hide and demanded the trial of Dominique Pelicot, 71, and 50 co-defendants since September 2 be open to the public because, as she has said through one of her lawyers, it should be up to her alleged abusers – not her – to be ashamed.

“It’s a way of saying… shame must change sides,” her attorney Stephane Babonneau said as the trial opened.

Since then, feminist activists have used her stylised portrait by Belgian artist Aline Dessine, daubed with the words “Shame is changing sides”, to show support and call for protests.

The artist with 2.5 million followers on TikTok has given up all rights to the image.

‘VERY BRAVE’

Outside the courtroom in the southern town of Avignon on Friday, protester Nadege Peneau said she was full of admiration for the trial’s main plaintiff.

“What she’s doing is very brave,” she said.

“She’s speaking up for so many children and women, and even men” who have been abused, she added.

Gisele Pelicot in August obtained a divorce from her husband, who has confessed to the abuse after meticulously documenting it with photos and videos.

She has moved away from the southern town of Mazan where, in her own words, for years he treated her like “a piece of meat” or a “rag doll”.

She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial has asked the media to use her former name as a married woman.

Her lawyer Antoine Camus said she had transformed from a devoted wife and retiree, who loved walks and choir singing, into a woman in the seventies ready for a battle.

“I will have to fight till the end,” she told the press on September 5, in her only public statement outside court in the first days of the four-month trial.

“Obviously it’s not an easy exercise and I can feel attempts to trap me with certain questions,” she added calmly.

‘NOT IN VAIN’

The daughter of a member of the military, Gisele Pelicot was born on December 7, 1952 in Germany, returning to France with her family when she was five.

When she was only nine, her mother, aged just 35, died of cancer.

“In my head, I was already 15, I was already a little woman,” she said, describing growing up “without much love”.

Her older brother Michel died of a heart attack aged 43, before her 20th birthday.

She has said she was never one to publicly show emotions.

“In the family, we hide tears and we share laughter,” one of her lawyers had reported her as saying.

She met Dominique Pelicot, her future husband and rapist, in 1971.

She had dreamt of becoming a hairdresser but instead studied to be a typist. After a few years temping, she joined France’s national electricity company EDF, ending her career in a logistics service for its nuclear power plants.

At home, she looked after her three children, then seven grandchildren, and did a little gymnastics.

Only when the police caught her husband filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket in 2020 did she find out the true reason behind her troubling memory lapses.

Camus, her lawyer, said his client “never wanted to be a role model”.

“She just wants all this not to be in vain,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)