Gisele Pelicot explains why she wanted her husband’s mass rape trial in France held in full public view

Gisele Pelicot, the woman at the center of the mass-rape trial that’s shocked her own country of France and the world, told her husband in court on Wednesday that she still “did not understand why” he had drugged and raped her for nearly a decade, along with dozens of other men he invited into their home.

“My life has crumbled to nothing,” she told the court in Avignon as her husband Dominique hung his head. “I always tried to lift you up. You reached the lowest depths of the human soul — but unfortunately, it was you who made that choice.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself, get over all this,” she said Wednesday. “At almost 72 years old, I don’t know if I have enough life to get back on my feet.”

Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging his wife regularly between 2011 and 2020 so that he and dozens of other men could rape her.

The youngest of the other 49 defendants, Joan K., who was 22 at the time, was absent for the birth of his daughter when one of his alleged assaults was said to have taken place, the French news agency AFP cited prosecutors as saying during the trial.

“It’s not for us to feel shame”

Gisele Pelicot has been revered in France and around the world for insisting the trial be held open to the public – which is not, by default, how sexual assault cases are handled in France. 

She said in court Wednesday, according to French newspaper Le Monde, that she wanted the proceedings to be public in the hope that “all women who are victims of rape can say to themselves: ‘Madame Pelicot did it, so we can do it.”‘ 

“I don’t want them to feel ashamed anymore. It’s not for us to feel shame — it’s for them [sexual attackers],” she said. “Above all, I’m expressing my will and determination to change this society.”

She went into harrowing detail about how her husband had slipped drugs into her food.

“We would have a glass of white wine together. I never found anything strange about my potatoes,” she told the court while reportedly refusing to look at Dominique. “We finished eating. Often when it’s a football match on TV, I’d let him watch it alone. He brought my ice cream to my bed, where I was. My favorite flavor — raspberry —  and I thought: ‘How lucky I am. He’s a love.'”

“I never felt my heart flutter. I didn’t feel anything. I must have gone under very quickly. I would wake up with my pajamas on,” she said, adding that she would sometimes wake up “more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and thought it was that.”

“I’m trying to understand,” she said, “how this husband, who was the perfect man, could have got to this.”

“No possible defense”

The trial, which is due to continue until Dec. 20, has triggered protests across France. On Saturday, protesters gathered outside dozens of courts to denounce “rape culture” in France.

There’s hope among some demonstrators that the Pelicot case could lead to changes in controversial French laws governing sexual consent.

Until another high-profile rape trial in 1980 triggered a change, the crime of rape in France had been narrowly defined by a Napoleon-era law as “illicit coitus with a woman who is known not to consent,” according to France’s national radio broadcaster RFI.

Only in 2021 did France introduce a legal age of sexual consent — and only after a public outcry over the rape of an 11-year-old schoolgirl by a man who was initially convicted only on the lesser charge of sexual assault.

An adult having sex with anyone under the age of 15 has been viewed as non-consensual since that law was changed. Unlike many European countries, however, French law still does not refer to consent in cases involving older victims.

French law defines rape as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise,” according to the Reuters news agency, but does not take consent into account. Prosecutors must, therefore, prove an intention to rape, legal experts told Reuters.

According to a study by the Institute of Public Policies, just 14% of rape accusations in France lead to formal investigations.

“Why don’t we manage to obtain convictions? The first reason is the law,” legal expert Catherine Le Magueresse told Reuters. “The law is written in such a way that victims must comply with the stereotype of a ‘good victim’ and a ‘true rape’: an unknown attacker, use of violence, and the victim’s resistance. But it is only true for a minority of rapes.”

Lawyers for some of Dominique Pelicot’s 49 alleged accomplices — most of whom have denied the rape charges — have said they thought his wife was asleep, taking part in a fetish act, or that Dominique’s consent was sufficient.

Gisele Pelicot’s testimony on Wednesday was the second time she had addressed the court. She told the chamber in September that she felt “humiliated” by the defendants’ lawyers. 

“I’ve been called an alcoholic. I’m said to be Mr Pelicot’s accomplice,” she said, shouting: “Rape is rape!”

Gisele Pelicot was greeted upon her arrival to the court on Wednesday by a crowd offering applause and support, as she has been most days during the trial.