Gisele Pelicot became an unwitting feminist symbol after taking the stand to expose the sexual violence she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband and dozens of other men.
Today, her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was found guilty of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife for almost a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her.
The 72-year-old attended almost all of the court hearings and was present as the revolting videos of her assaults – filmed by her husband – were shown.
In almost two months of testimony, the court heard from dozens of accused men. Pelicot listened as the majority denied raping her – and how they thought she was pretending to be asleep or was playing a game.
She took the stand and said: ‘A rapist is not just someone you meet in a dark car park late at night. He can also be found in family, among friends.’
To modern women in France, Gisele Pelicot is a hero.
But until police knocked on her door four years ago, exposing the crimes, she lived a normal life as a wife, mother, and grandmother.
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While victims of rape usually quietly struggle with the shame of what men did to them, she has been praised for her courage to stand up to her alleged attackers.
Under French law, the names of victims are normally kept out of the press, but she insisted on a public trial in an attempt to expose her ex and the 50 men that he is accused of inviting to rape her.
She allowed journalists to publish her full name, and the court to exhibit explicit videos recorded by her husband showing men engaging in sexual intercourse with her while unconscious.
Gisele has said her decisions were in solidarity with all the other women who go unrecognised as victims of sexual crimes.
‘I have decided not to be ashamed, I have done nothing wrong,’ she previously told the court. ‘They are the ones who must be ashamed.
‘I’m not expressing hatred or hate, but I am determined that things change in this society.’
On September 5, she spoke about her ordeal in public for the first time. With a calm and clear voice, she detailed the horror of discovering that her ex-spouse had been sedating her and invited at least 72 strangers into their house to rape her.
‘For me, everything collapses,’ she testified. ‘These are scenes of barbarity, of rape.’
National broadcaster TF1 described her as a ‘dignified, strong woman who was holding her head high.’
In an open letter translated into English and published in the French newspaper Le Monde, journalist and author Helene Devynck thanked her for her bravery, echoing the feelings of many other French people.
‘You entered our lives like you entered the Avignon court, through the front door,’ wrote Devynck, a French #MeToo movement figure.
‘It’s not just you, Gisele, that they have treated like a thing. They were telling us, all of us women, how insignificant we are. Your strength restores ours. Thank you for this immense gift.’
Dominique Pelicot was convicted of drugging his wife for a decade, so he and dozens of strangers in the village of Mazan in Provence could assault her.
His abuse only came to light in September 2020 when he was arrested for taking upskirt photographs of women in a supermarket.
It was then that police discovered thousands of pictures and videos that Pelicot had taken of the rapes and stored on his computer in a folder named ‘abuse’.
At the beginning of the trial, he admitted to drugging his wife and also recruiting dozens of men to rape her.
He described how he had recruited men online, on the now-defunct website called Coco, and began private chats with potential recruits, telling them he was ‘looking for someone to abuse my sleeping, drugged wife’.
‘When they came, they already knew everything. They all knew how this went before the meetings,’ said Pélicot, adding later: ‘They couldn’t feel as if they were being manipulated. I didn’t force anyone; I didn’t put a gun to anyone’s head.’
To keep her unconscious, he crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drinks.
The horror of this case is not simply that Pelicot, in his own words, arranged for men to rape his wife, it is that he also had no difficulty finding dozens of them to take part.
Aged between 26 and 74, they include a nurse, a journalist, a prison warden, a local councillor, a soldier, lorry drivers, and farm workers.
In total, 49 are accused of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault. Five others are also charged with possessing child abuse imagery.
Only 50 men were identified in the videos by police, but at least another 30 took part in the rapes.
At least 35 of the defendants have denied the rape charges, claiming that Pelicot tricked them into believing that they were taking part in a sex game.
Celine Piques, a spokesperson of the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism! said she is convinced that many of the men on trial were inspired or perverted by porn, including videos found on popular websites.
Although some sites have started cracking down on search terms such as ‘unconscious,’ hundreds of videos of men having sex with seemingly passed out women can be found online, she said.
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