Gisèle Pelicot condemns rape accused and says French society should change

Gisèle Pelicot has denounced the mass rape case of 51 males as a “trial of cowardice”, and stated it’s excessive time that France’s “macho, patriarchal society” which “trivialises rape” modifications.

Ms Pelicot, who has attended the mass rape trial from its begin in September, entered the courtroom wearing a darkish inexperienced jacket and a vibrant scarf. She was questioned by defence legal professionals after the final defendant within the case, Philippe L, left the dock.

She has waived her proper to anonymity so your entire trial could be heard in courtroom in Avignon within the full glare of publicity.

Her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, has admitted recruiting dozens of males on-line to rape her over nearly a decade at their house in Mazan.

The case has not simply shocked France, it has attracted curiosity from world wide. It has highlighted the difficulty of drug-induced sexual assault and raised questions on whether or not consent ought to grow to be a part of the French definition of rape.

Warning: Among the particulars on this report are graphic from the beginning

In a dramatic day in courtroom, Dominique Pelicot was requested whether or not he accepted that he had manipulated the opposite defendants into raping his spouse or if he had drugged them, he stated firmly: “Absolutely not.”

He prompt that they had used that defence “to save themselves”.

Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer additionally requested him what he needed to say to his household, particularly his daughter Caroline.

Partially bare pictures of Caroline had been discovered on Dominique Pelicot’s laptop computer, and when requested in regards to the file he had referred to as “my naked daughter”, he addressed her throughout the room: “I have watched her fall apart… Caroline, I never touched you.”

She shouted throughout the courtroom: “You are lying; I am sick of your lies, you’re alone in your lie, you will die lying.”

There was full silence as they checked out one another and Dominique Pelicot then held his head in his fingers.

The remainder of the household, their faces full of anguish, stared at him, whereas Gisèle Pelicot herself didn’t react.

Earlier on Tuesday throughout her opening remarks, Ms Pelicot stated that by giving up her proper to a trial behind closed doorways she “knew what I was signing up for”, though she conceded “today I can feel the tiredness”.

Tuesday’s session was the final likelihood that legal professionals for the boys on trial for rape might need to persuade the judges that her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot had someway tricked them into raping her whereas she was unconscious.

About 15 defendants sat within the defendants’ field, whereas Dominique Pelicot, sporting a inexperienced jumper, sat in one other, resting his chin on his hand. A handful of the 50 admit raping Gisèle Pelicot, however the majority don’t.

Not lengthy earlier than Ms Pelicot took the stand, the final of the 50 defendants, Philippe L, stated he had been “surprised” by the state of affairs when Dominique Pelicot had welcomed him into his house and insisted that he penetrate Gisèle Pelicot.

He additionally denies rape, arguing he put his conscience apart and “was thinking with my penis instead of my brain”.

Gisèle Pelicot sat behind her authorized staff alongside her two sons and daughters-in-law.

When requested whether or not she thought there was a distinction between those that had admitted to raping her and people who had not, Ms Pelicot stated that “all came to rape me… all committed a crime”.

However she emphasised that when the accused had admitted to rape within the dock “I looked them in the eye”.

“I’ve seen individuals who deny rape parade before the court,” she stated. “I want to tell these men: at which moment when you enter that bedroom did Ms Pelicot give you consent?”

“I’ve heard ‘I was manipulated’, I’ve heard ‘I drank a glass of water, I was drugged’. But at what point did they not realise?”

Ms Pelicot was additionally requested why she continued to make use of her ex-husband’s identify when her personal kids had been utilizing different names.

The room was hushed as she responded calmly that when she had first gone into the courtroom in Avignon her kids had been ashamed of the identify, however that her grandchildren had been nonetheless referred to as Pelicot.

“Today I want them to be proud of their grandmother,” she declared.

“My name is known across the world now. They shouldn’t be ashamed of carrying that name. Today we will remember Gisèle Pelicot.”

The environment within the courtroom grew to become heated when Ms Pelicot was questioned by defence lawyer Nadia El-Bouroumi, who prompt she had used “harsh words” in direction of the opposite defendants, however not her husband.

“Looking at you – and I’m sorry to say this – I wondered whether we’d ever see you cry,” El-Bouroumi requested at one level.

The lawyer’s combative and generally aggressive tone elicited gasps from the general public and the media contained in the courtroom, and a number of other folks shook their heads in disbelief.

Ms Pelicot rejected recommendations that trying again she might need “seen the signs” that one thing may not have been proper on the mornings after being drugged: “I would wake up with my usual pyjamas on, so no.”

She spoke of shedding 10 years of her life via medical worries brought on by the medication her former husband had given her with out her data.

“I thought I’d either die or end up in a mental hospital,” she mirrored. “I am 72 now and I don’t know how much time I have left.”

Defence legal professionals additionally requested her in regards to the pictures on Dominique Pelicot’s laptop computer of their daughter Caroline.

The Pelicots’ kids then stormed out of the courtroom and didn’t come again for a while, whereas Gisèle Pelicot stated later that it “isn’t a family trial”.

When a defence lawyer put it to Ms Pelicot that she was nonetheless underneath her ex-husband’s management and couldn’t deliver herself to sentence him absolutely, she stood silently in courtroom because the legal professionals from each side shouted at one another.

The presiding decide needed to intervene to deliver the argument to an finish.

Later within the day the courtroom heard a press release from Dominique Pelicot given to police in November 2020, two months after he was caught filming underneath girls’s skirts by a grocery store safety guard.

That ultimately led police to seek out hundreds of movies that he had filmed of males having intercourse together with his spouse whereas she was unconscious. She had no thought of what had gone on and realised he had been drugging her from 2011 to 2020.

The trial is because of wind up subsequent month with a verdict within the second half of December.