A verdict is imminent in the rape trial that shocked France – DW – 12/19/2024

• 1973 pellicott marries
• 2011 to 2020 Dominique Pellicott and the men he recruited raped Gisele Pellicott multiple times online
• September 2020 Pellicott was arrested when a security guard caught him filming up women’s skirts.
• November 2020 Investigators tell Gisele Pellicotte about videos they found on her husband’s electronics
• Beginning September 2024: The trial begins in Avignon, France.
• September 2024: Gisele’s ex-husband Dominique Pellicot has pleaded guilty to drugging and raping Gisele over a nine-year period.
• September 2024: Gisele Pellicot gave her first testimony, describing abuse and calling for social change.
• November 2024: Gisele Pellicot, giving her final statement, condemned the “cowardice” of the accused and called for a change in society’s attitude towards rape.
• November 2024: The trial continues with closing arguments from prosecutors and the defense teams.
• December 19, 2024: A decision is expected.

Gisele Pellicote has become a feminist icon for speaking out and rejecting the idea that rape victims should be ashamed. The trial has sparked widespread debate and protests about sexual violence in French society.

Gisele Pellicot, 72, met her husband in her teens and married in 1973. They briefly divorced in the early 2000s due to financial reasons, but remained together and remarried after a few years.

Investigators presented evidence that he took advantage of the anti-anxiety and sleeping pills he was given to drug him and his wife and rape them himself while they were living in Paris before retirement. .

In 2011, the couple retired to the village of Mazan in southeastern France. Pellicott began actively recruiting other men online to come to his home and rape his wife. Footage of her crimes was found when police arrested her for an upskirting incident in 2020.

During the course of the abuse, the effects of repeated drug abuse led Giselle to believe she had a serious health problem, as she was constantly tired and her hair was falling out. Her husband accompanied her to numerous doctor’s appointments as she searched for answers about the mysterious illness.

Pellicott’s co-defendants come from all kinds of middle- and working-class backgrounds, and many of them have wives and partners. These include a truck driver, an IT expert and a journalist. One of them is accused not of attacking Gisele Pelicot, but of following Dominique Pelicot’s advice to rape his own wife, who was also attacked by Pelicot. The 52nd defendant died of cancer before the trial could be completed.

Pelicot has confessed to the crime. Several of her co-defendants have argued that they were under the impression that they were engaging in the couple’s sexual fantasy or that they did not know that she was unconscious. The accused may face up to 20 years in jail.

DW does not usually publish the names of victims, but in this case is doing so at the request of Gisele Pellicot to raise awareness of sexual abuse.

Our decision to publish disturbing material from the Pellicote rape trial came after extensive deliberation by reporters and editors in our newsroom. It follows Pellicote’s lead.

They decided to keep the trial open to the public, despite the court’s suggestion that it be held in private. She allowed reporters to use her full name and allowed the court to show explicit videos recorded by her husband.

Testifying in court, she said, “I wanted all women to be victims of rape – not just when they’ve been drugged, rape happens at all levels, I want those women to say: Mrs. Pellicott said this Did it, we can do it too.”

She said of the accused, “When you are raped, there is shame and the shame is not for us, but for them.”

es/lo (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)