French woman drugged by husband for nearly 10 years so other men could rape her

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I honestly don't have the words to describe this sick depravity. You lose a bit of faith in humanity after reading something like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9dwxexp77o




Warning: This story contains distressing details from the start.

A French woman who was raped by unknown men over 10 years after being drugged to sleep by her husband told a court of her horror at learning how she had been abused.

Gisèle Pélicot, who is 72, was giving evidence on day three of the trial in Avignon, south-east France, of 51 men – including her husband of 50 years, Dominique. All are accused of rape.

Documents before court indicate that Dominique Pélicot, 71, admitted to police that he got satisfaction from watching other men have sex with his unconscious wife.

Many defendants in the case contest the rape charge against them, claiming that they thought they were taking part in a consensual sex game.

But Gisèle Pélicot told the court she was "never complicit" in the sexual acts and had never pretended to be asleep.

This is a case that has shocked France, all the more so because the trial is being held in public.

Gisèle waived her right to anonymity to shift the "shame" back onto the accused, her legal team has previously said.

Taking the stand on Thursday, she said she was speaking for "every woman who's been drugged without knowing it... so that no woman has to suffer."

She recalled the moment in November 2020 when she was asked by police to attend an interview alongside her husband.

He had recently been caught taking under-skirt photographs of women at a supermarket, and Gisèle told the court she believed the meeting with police was a formality related to that incident.

“The police officer asked me about my sex life,” she told the court. “I told him I had never practised partner-swapping or threesomes. I said I was a one-man woman. I couldn’t bear any man’s hands on me other than my husband’s.

“But after an hour the officer said, ‘I am going to show you some things which you will not find pleasant’. He opened a folder and he showed me a photograph.

“I did not recognise either the man or the woman asleep on the bed. The officer asked: ‘Madame, is this your bed and bedside table?’
“It was hard to recognise myself dressed up in a way that was unfamiliar. Then he showed me a second photo and a third.
“I asked him to stop. It was unbearable. I was inert, in my bed, and a man was raping me. My world fell apart.”

Gisèle said that up until then their marriage had been generally happy, and she and her husband had overcome a number of financial and health-related difficulties. She said she had forgiven the upskirting after he promised her that it had been a one-off incident.

“All that we had built together had gone. Our three children, seven grandchildren. We used to be an ideal couple.

“I just wanted to disappear. But I had to tell my children their father was under arrest. I asked my son-in-law to stay next to my daughter when I told her that her father had raped me, and had me raped by others.

“She let out a howl, whose sound is still etched on my mind.”

In the coming days, the court will hear more evidence from the investigation, about how Dominique allegedly contacted men via sex-chat websites and invited them to his suburban home in Mazan, a town north-east of Avignon.

Police claim the men were given strict instructions. They had to park at some distance from the house so as to not attract attention, and to wait for up to an hour so that the sleeping drugs which he had given Gisèle could take effect.

They further claim that, once in the home, the men were told to undress in the kitchen, and then to warm their hands with hot water or on a radiator. Tobacco and perfume were not allowed in case they awoke Gisèle.

Condoms were not required.

No money changed hands.

According to the investigation, Dominique watched and filmed the proceedings, eventually creating a hard-drive file with some 4,000 photos and videos on it. It was as a result of the upskirting episode that police found the files on his computer.

Police say they have evidence of around 200 rapes carried out between 2011 and 2020, initially at their home outside Paris, but mainly in Mazan, where they moved in 2013.

Investigators allege that just over half the rapes were carried out by her husband. Most of the other men lived only a few kilometres away.
Asked Thursday by the judge if she knew any of the accused, Gisèle said she recognised only one.

“He was our neighbour. He came over to check our bikes. I used to see him at the bakery. He was always polite. I had no idea he was coming to rape me.”

Gisèle was then reminded by the judge that in order to respect the presumption of innocence, it had been agreed in court not to use the word rape but “sex scene”.

She replied: “I just think they should recognise the facts. When I think of what they have done I am overcome with disgust. They should at least have the responsibility to recognise what they did.”

After the truth emerged, Gisèle found that she was carrying four sexually-transmitted diseases.

“I have had no sympathy from any of the accused. One who was HIV-positive came six times. Not once did my husband express any concern about my health,” she said.

She is now in the process of divorcing him.
After speaking for two hours in front of Dominique and the other accused, she said: “Inside me, it is a scene of devastation. The façade may look solid... but behind it...”
 
I read about this, mind-boggling case.

How did she not worry about blackouts, or unexpected soreness though?
 
Ugh the world can be such a bleak place. That man deserves to have horrible things happen to him in prison.
 
That's one sick feck if I ever saw one and I hope that he'll be met the full might of the law.

May she get all the support and help she can.
 
I didn't read it. I'm sure whatever happened was sickening and the men who participated in the rape should all be punished severely.

Human beings can be downright messed up.
 
Gisèle Pelicot is an absolute hero. She waived her right to anonymity in this trial to be a symbol for all women, with the hope this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
 
Psychologist Marianne Douteau this morning told the court how her client lamented his arrest, complaining that the case against him had ruined his life and that he and his wife could have continued in a happy marriage had his misdeeds not been discovered. '(Pelicot) complains that this criminal case against him has destroyed his life.

'He claims everything could have continued as before if he had been arrested. He said: 'Gisele would not have known anything, we would have continued to be happy'.'

Wow
 
I know! Nuts, isn't it? You also have locals who are fed up with the trial already and others who are more concerned that the village gets a bad name. Another lunatic said it wasn't as bad as another woman who was raped because she was awake and would remember it all.

It's like the French version of the deep south or something.
 
Read about this a few days back. Utterly despicable and it’s very important to put every one of the husband’s acquaintance rapists behind bars too. But I don’t know how they’ll make sure of that.
 
that is truly one of the most fecked up things I’ve heard of

Deserves to be locked up for life
 
I know! Nuts, isn't it? You also have locals who are fed up with the trial already and others who are more concerned that the village gets a bad name. Another lunatic said it wasn't as bad as another woman who was raped because she was awake and would remember it all.

It's like the French version of the deep south or something.
They’re probably one of those unidentified men in the video
 
I know! Nuts, isn't it? You also have locals who are fed up with the trial already and others who are more concerned that the village gets a bad name. Another lunatic said it wasn't as bad as another woman who was raped because she was awake and would remember it all.

It's like the French version of the deep south or something.

Also known as....the mayor.

Perhaps one of the worst stories I've ever read I think. Awful awful stuff.
 
I mean how they’ll make sure they identify each of the rapists
He has videos I believe. One was her neighbor and most of them were not too far from where she lives.
They haven't identified everyone, there are about 50 men on trial but the number of men who raped her is closer to 90 I believe. One who has been identified is on the run, and the others haven't been identified I believe.
 
I just find it hard to take in. The camera says he asked 90 men if they'd like sex with his decidedly elderly wife, he may or may not have said she'd have to be drugged first but in any case they jumped at the chance. Surely a lot more must have been asked but said no, I'd hope an awful lot said no in fact. He must actually have asked hundreds of men, who he couldn't possibly have all known well, in one rural area, men who would have talked other men, and sometimes wives too. The whole thing must have been widely-known, if only in private conversations.

And the villagers are worried it will give them a bad name? Well yeah, it does.
 
I just find it hard to take in. The camera says he asked 90 men if they'd like sex with his decidedly elderly wife, he may or may not have said she'd have to be drugged first but in any case they jumped at the chance. Surely a lot more must have been asked but said no, I'd hope an awful lot said no in fact. He must actually have asked hundreds of men, who he couldn't possibly have all known well, in one rural area, men who would have talked other men, and sometimes wives too. The whole thing must have been widely-known, if only in private conversations.

And the villagers are worried it will give them a bad name? Well yeah, it does.
He recruited men on internet, on a dating app apparently.
 
Yeah absolutely disgusting case. The reaction from those in the village/town is predictably depressing as well. Bunch of cretins.
 
Ah, that makes sense of the numbers then, if not of anything else. Thanks

Although if most were from the net it must have been hard identify them.
It's a mix - he recruited the men on internet (I don't know the specifics of how it went, if it was anonymous, what info was given exactly...) and then there was corroboration with the videos he took at the home.
Yeah absolutely disgusting case. The reaction from those in the village/town is predictably depressing as well. Bunch of cretins.
Just on this, definitely don't want to defend those idiots, but it's not exactly a village, Mazan is a 6000 inhabitants small town (in any case in France over 5000 people, they use the term "town"), and while I'm sure there are some awful people from there being shown in the media, I wouldn't say it's fair to generalise to the entire city which is, from what I've heard, pretty traumatised by everything going on. It's easy for the media, particularly international media, to only latch onto a few minority people saying shocking things, but I don't believe it's representative of the overarching sentiment of deep malaise, particularly considering the profiles of the guys involved.
 
What do you mean? They defending him?
Read something about a shopkeeper saying nobody gives a shit. And there's a weird vibe in the area now because 30 men are still unidentified so some are questioning who they know, others think it's just a bother and want it to go away with zero thought for the victim.
 
Ok just to make it clear, the massively overwhelming feeling is of disgust and horror at what is unfolding.

I'm sure they found isolated idiots to share some quotes with the media, sadly, but they're not representative.
 
It's a mix - he recruited the men on internet (I don't know the specifics of how it went, if it was anonymous, what info was given exactly...) and then there was corroboration with the videos he took at the home.

Just on this, definitely don't want to defend those idiots, but it's not exactly a village, Mazan is a 6000 inhabitants small town (in any case in France over 5000 people, they use the term "town"), and while I'm sure there are some awful people from there being shown in the media, I wouldn't say it's fair to generalise to the entire city which is, from what I've heard, pretty traumatised by everything going on. It's easy for the media, particularly international media, to only latch onto a few minority people saying shocking things, but I don't believe it's representative of the overarching sentiment of deep malaise, particularly considering the profiles of the guys involved.

As you mentioned, the perpetrators aren't really acquaintance of the husband. He put his wife on a well known swingers website, they could and likely come from lots of places in the country and the region.