French grandmother-turned-feminist Giselle Pélicot will take the stand Wednesday to comment on the evidence to the point that she insists the rape case against her ex-husband and 50 men be made public.
The former logistics director, 72, was unconsciously raped by her husband, Dominique Pélicot, 71, who introduced sleeping pills and anxiolytics into her food and drink and invited men to rape her for nine years. 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence.
Dominique Pélicot admitted to the charges against her and said she had been in contact with men for almost a decade in an online chat room titled “Unbeknownst to Her”, where she arranged for strangers to come and rape her in the house. of the couple in the southern town of Mazán. While the wife was in a coma in her bed. She said she was drugged during dinner or while eating ice cream while watching television after dinner.
“I'm a rapist like everyone else in this courtroom,” Pellicott told the court, adding that he knew other men on trial had been invited to rape their wives.
“Not for a second did I give my consent to Mr. Pélicott or any of the other men,” Giselle Pélicott told the court last month. “Sacrifice on the Sub-altar.”
In nearly two months of testimony, the court heard from dozens of men accused of the crime. The majority denied the rape. Some claimed that Pelicott thought she was pretending to sleep or playing, or that her husband's consent was enough.
Police discovered video evidence of the alleged rape after Dominique Pélicot was arrested in 2020 after filming women's skirts in a supermarket.
Police have identified a total of 50 men from images stored and precisely tagged by Pelicot. The men tried by Pelicat face up to 20 years in prison. In total, 49 men have been accused of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault. Five others have been charged with child abuse.
The accused are between 26 and 74 years old, a nurse, a journalist, a prison officer, a councillor, a soldier, truck drivers and agricultural workers.
Pellicott said he was humiliated by cross-examination by defense attorneys who argued that the men might have made an error in judgment or were drunk or complicit in pretending to be asleep.
“I felt humiliated when I was in this courtroom. “They called me a drunk, a conspirator of Mr Pellicatt,” he told the court last month, adding that his life had been “destroyed” for 10 years.
“As it was, I couldn't respond fully. He was in a coma, the videos prove it.
The presiding judge has called him to speak because the trial is almost halfway through.
Pelicot's lawyer, Antoine Camus, said he did not want a closed-door trial because “that's what his attackers would have wanted.” He wanted the trial to raise awareness about drug use in sexual assault.
Thousands of people have participated in street demonstrations across France in support of Gisèle Pelicot.
The trial will continue until December 20.
