For more than two months, Gisele Pelicot sat in court while a video – shot by her husband – showing several men sexually abusing her was played in front of the court.
She was asleep during all these rapes.
Pelicot did not appear in court when the films were shown. In fact, he fought hard for the videos to be seen by the public.
On Tuesday, Pelicot gave her final statement in court in the trial of 51 men accused of raping her after her husband drugged her and invited the men into their home to abuse her for almost 10 years. The case has gripped France and elsewhere, sparked protests by women, and raised suspicions about the prevalence of rape and sexual violence.
The French woman Gisele Pelicot, who was raped by her husband Dominique Pelicot at their home in the south of the French city of Mazan, arrives to attend the trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other accused, in the court of Avignon, France. November 20, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Speaking before the court during the trial, Pelicot did not hesitate to cast full responsibility and shame on those accused of rape, promoting the motto “shame must change sides” adopted by women’s activists. His last words were also his own.
“The time has come for the public to look at this society of men, fathers and change their views on rape,” he said.
There were many defendants in the court, men from different backgrounds, professions, and circumstances. During the trial, they said they thought they were just participants in the man’s sexual activities, and did not know their actions amounted to rape.
Pelicot attacked their “cowardice” directly.
“When you go into the bedroom and see a body that doesn’t move, at what point (do you decide) not to do it? Why didn’t you leave immediately to report it to the police?”
More: ‘We are all Gisèle’: French women rise up against the ‘culture of rape’ during the trial of Gisèle Pelicot
“For me, this is a trial of cowardice, there is no other way to explain it,” he said.
“The lack of understanding of what abuse is” has shown how an abuser can be “anyone,” even someone who “doesn’t see himself as an abuser,” said Violette Perrotte, director of Le Maison des Femmes, a French non-profit organization. which manages health centers designed for women who are victims of violence.
“We always say that domestic violence does not have one type of victim and one type of abuser,” he said. The case “showed the diversity of people capable of abuse.”
‘Our family was destroyed’
Until she was caught by the police, Gisele Pelicot believed that she had a happy marriage to her husband, Dominique Pelicot. Unrelated at all, he believed, it was the memory loss and anxiety symptoms he had experienced for years, leading him to fear he had a brain tumor or Alzheimer’s and to visit multiple doctors, the New York Times reported.
But this explanation came in 2020, after authorities arrested her husband when he was caught taking women’s skirts from a supermarket. On his seized electronic devices, they found 300 photos and videos of him being abused by 72 different men.
Dominique Pelicot connected with the men on Coco.gg, a since-defunct anonymous chat site linked to a series of murders, rapes, and assaults.
For his part, Dominique Pelicot took direct responsibility in front of the court a few weeks ago: “I’m a bully, like everyone else in this room,” he said.
But in his final statement, Pelicot maintained that he was not guilty of abusing his daughter, who goes by the pseudonym Caroline Darian, or their grandchildren, despite the nude photos of Darian found in her father’s possession.
“You don’t even have the guts to tell the truth!” Darian shouted from the court. “You will die with a lie. You are alone in your lies.”
“Our family is broken,” David Pelicot, one of her two brothers, told the court on Monday. He hopes that from the trial these men, including his father, who he called “that man,” will be punished for the crime they hurt my mother.
When his father interrupted his apologetic testimony, David Pelicot shot back, “Never!”
“It’s been four years since I lost my father,” said Florian Pelicot, another son of the couple, told the court. He says he hopes the court will slap his father with a heavy sentence to encourage other rape victims to speak up.
Perrotte said he believes the trial will be flawed, as it shows how many rapists are known to their victims, and that there is no such thing as a “perfect victim” or “perfect crime”. His organization, for example, now teaches professionals about “chemical submission,” a term used to describe drugging a rape victim.
“The rule of the fathers still has very good days ahead of it, but it has affected the way we see criminals,” he said.
Distribution: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gisele Pelicot blasts ‘patriarchal society’ in shocking French rape case.