Gisele Pelicot: Husband ‘destroyed’ and betrayed me, says woman at centre of France mass rape trial

Published

2 weeks ago

October 23, 2024

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The woman at the centre of a mass rape trial in France has said she can’t comprehend how the “perfect man” betrayed her – as she spoke in court for the first time.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, was sedated and raped by her former husband Dominique Pelicot.

For almost a decade, he crushed sleeping pills and other anti-anxiety drugs into her food and drink and allegedly recruited men online to rape her.

He’s already admitted his crimes, carried out between 2011 and 2020, and said he organised dozens of men to come to the house and rape her while she was comatose.

Supported by family, Ms Pelicot was applauded as she arrived at court on Wednesday.

She spoke directly to her ex-husband during the testimony

“I still don’t understand how this man who was the perfect man could do this, could destroy my life and betray me,” she said.

“I haven’t been able look Dominique Pelicot in the face – but today I talk to him,” she said as part of a statement at the mid-point of the trial.

“We have 50 years together. I was a happy wife; we have three kids and seven grandkids.

“You were a good husband and a good man, and I trusted you. I never doubted you,” she said, beginning to cry.

But this good man, she told the court, was responsible for her being raped 100 times.

Ms Pelicot expressed anger and disbelief that he allegedly allowed people in their bedroom when he knew she was against swinging.

When she became sick, he accompanied her to the gynaecologist but nobody suspected a thing, she told the court.

“My life has been turned upside down. You chose to do this,” she told him.

The judge asked about their mealtime routine, referring to evidence that Dominique Pelicot had slipped drugs into her food.

Gisele Pelicot said he had made lots of meals and often brought her ice cream afterwards.

“I thought ‘wow’, I’m lucky to have a husband who looks after me like this,” she told the court, explaining she was totally unaware the food was drugged.

She said she must have fallen asleep quickly, as she often woke up tired and in her pyjamas.

If she was raped in the day, she said her husband must have drugged her orange juice.

During questioning, she was asked if she thought her ex-husband had acted out of vengeance.

She said she’d considered he might have been trying to punish her after she had a lover once in their relationship, around 30 years ago.

Ms Pelicot also said her former husband had talked about mistresses.

Forty-nine of the 51 men on trial, including Dominique Pelicot, are accused of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault.

A few admit the charges but say they didn’t intend to commit rape.

Most, however, deny the allegations, with some claiming they believed they were part of a game between the couple.

The men are aged between 26 and 74 and most lived in southeast France. Among them are a journalist, soldier and lorry driver.

They face up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

‘I am a destroyed woman’

Gisele Pelicot said she had waived her right to anonymity and allowed videos of the attacks to be shown in court because “it makes people see the truth”.

During her statement, she also addressed the women who had given evidence in support of the co-defendants.

“When I hear mothers, sisters and partners talk about their men as normal… the profile of a rapist can be normal, can be a friend or a family man,” she said.

“Can you imagine what that does to me? That I was accused of pretending to be asleep and that I was aware of what was happening. It’s violent.”

She said she was a “destroyed woman” and was getting psychological help.

Despite the trauma, she said she wanted to offer hope and strength to other victims: “I wanted that all victims of rape could say, ‘well if Gisele can do it, we can do it’.

“Because when we are raped, we have shame, but it’s not for us to be ashamed, but for those men,” she declared.

She said she was hurt when a defence lawyer asked her at what point the sexual activity was rape.

“They did this to an unconscious woman. Rape is a rape,” she said, becoming emotional.

Reacting to some defendants apologising, she said it would have been apparent when they touched her that she was not conscious.

“They are apologising to themselves, not to me,” she said.

‘He found sex elsewhere’

Earlier on Wednesday, the court heard from the partners of some of the men accused of raping the 72-year-old.

The wife of one said that because she refused him sex “he found it elsewhere”.

The 45-year-old described her husband Jean Luc-L as “a good husband and father”.

She said their life was normal, adding: “He never hit me. I often refused sex. He insisted but then if I refused, he would be unhappy and then leave”.

Recalling when police told her about the claims, the mother of two said: “I was in shock, but I think that because I refused him sex, as a man, that’s why he found it elsewhere.”

Hearing the comment, Ms Pelicot expressed surprise through her lawyer.

“I understand Gisele’s position,” the co-defendant’s wife said.

The lawyer asked her about Ms Pelicot’s surprise at her comment: “It’s because I kept refusing and for a long time,” she replied, prompting audible gasps from some in court.

“I understand what my husband did to Gisele is unacceptable and I share her pain,” she said.

The woman said she hadn’t left her husband and still visited him in prison.

Another woman, the ex-partner of Florian R, described him as “a normal guy”.

“We were good, we were normal,” she said, explaining they have children but split up in 2019.

The 37-year-old said their sex life had been “normal”, “basic” and didn’t involve fantasies.

Talking about when she heard he was being investigated, she said: “Initially I thought he was in trouble with the police because he was with a girl who I thought was too young… she was 14 years old.”

She said they still talked on the phone due to their children, who she had taken to visit him in jail.

The trial in Avignon is expected to continue until the end of the year.

World

Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris reveals planned date for general election

Published

33 mins ago

November 6, 2024

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Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris reveals planned date for general election

Ireland’s prime minister has announced the planned date for a general election to be held this month.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said he hopes the election will take place on 29 November, formally kicking off a truncated campaign which will last mere weeks.

Mr Harris, 38, was appointed Irish prime minister – the youngest in the country’s history – after Leo Varadkar’s shock resignation in March.

He will travel to Aras an Uachtarain on Friday, the official residence of the Irish president, to seek the dissolution of Ireland’s Dail parliament.

Speaking to RTE News on Wednesday, Mr Harris said: “As I would have discussed with the other coalition leaders, it’s my hope that we will have polling day on this country on November 29.”

He added: “I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead and asking the people of Ireland for a mandate.”

There’s a clear reason why this election has been called

So the worst kept secret in Irish politics is finally out, and the people look set to head to the ballot boxes on 29 November.

The taoiseach employs several lofty explanations for why he has decided upon an early election, but it’s hard to look beyond political expediency.

The Fine Gael party has been flying in the polls since Simon Harris became leader in April, while the opposition is in freefall. Sinn Fein, Ireland’s main opposition party, dropped to 16% in one recent poll – the lowest level of support since 2019.

Its leader Mary Lou McDonald – once seen as Ireland’s first female taoiseach in waiting – has been battling a serious decline in support for a year, and is bogged down in firefighting a damaging series of internal party scandals, north and south of the border.

Why wait until next March for an election?

You can read Stephen Murphy’s full analysis here

After refusing to be drawn on the election date for weeks, Mr Harris made the announcement less than an hour after his coalition partner-turned-campaign rival Micheal Martin revealed that the election would be called on Friday.

Mr Harris could have waited until March when the coalition’s five-year term comes to an end to go to the polls, but he has been paving the way for an election in recent weeks, announcing 10.5bn euros (£8.75bn) in tax cuts and spending increases last month.

The election will bring to an end the historic coalition that brought together Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, who had been rivals dating back to the civil war.

It saw Mr Martin, the Fianna Fail leader, taking the taoiseach role for the first half of the lifetime of the government, later replaced by then-Fine Gael leader Mr Varadkar.

The last election was seen as a monumentally successful performance for Sinn Fein, which had the highest percentage of first-preference votes, but the party has struggled in more recent local and European elections.

World

Should we be worried about a Donald Trump presidency?

Published

33 mins ago

November 6, 2024

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Should we be worried about a Donald Trump presidency?

A man described by not one but two of his closest former aides as a fascist will become the most powerful man in the world when he takes office. How worried should we be?

Very, say another dozen White House staffers who served under Donald Trump and watched him in action for his first four years in power.

In a second term, they are warning that those who once tried to prevent him from acting on his worst impulses will no longer be there to rein him in.

Follow latest: Trump wins US election – as world leaders congratulate him

“The grown ups”, as they were called in Mr Trump’s first administration, will have gone, replaced by people more aligned with his agenda and pushing their own.

What is that agenda and what is to come? That is harder to say. We have learned not to take Donald J Trump literally – his empty promises, lies, and false threats come thick and fast.

The first time round, many of his promises came to nothing; to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it, to bring peace to the Middle East, to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, and Iran’s too.

But we can say what is likely; trade wars with China, Mexico, and Canada seem probable.

The extent of the tariffs Mr Trump imposes are harder to predict but the impact on the global economy will most likely be considerable.

He could rip up more treaties the US has signed, including climate commitments made by his predecessors.

Mr Trump is likely to undo much of the Biden administration’s work to reverse climate change and the negative impact on the planet may be substantial.

And he is likely to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war largely on Moscow’s terms if his words and those of his team are anything to go by.

His running mate JD Vance says Russia will keep the land it has taken and receive a guarantee of Ukrainian neutrality. Putin could not have hoped for more.

Those hoping for an end to the war in Gaza may be disappointed too.

Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are close allies.

He is likely to give the Israelis plenty of latitude when it comes to the conflict. And there are fears he would not restrain Israel in any future confrontations with Iran unlike the Biden administration, with all the risks of a wider Middle Eastern war that might ensue.

NATO’s uncertain future

Trump’s impact on NATO is harder to predict. His team has floated various plans for the alliance. They all arguably weaken America’s support for it.

Without America’s cast-iron guarantee, will other countries seek their own security arrangements? It seems likely.

One of the great pillars of the post-world war order will have been weakened. But Mr Trump in his first term showed contempt for all its multi-lateral, multinational organisations.

America swings through cycles of isolationism, retreating from the world, then having to re-engage at huge cost to protect its interests.

Mr Trump may prove unwilling to learn the lessons of that history.

Those who regard America, for all its faults, as a positive influence in the world, an example to follow, will be most worried and disheartened.

A demagogic populist, regarded as a fascist by some of those who know him best and who openly admires authoritarians and dictators, will be taking up the reins of power again in the world’s most powerful democracy.

Half of American voters have opted for a man who refused to accept election defeat four years ago, used lies and dirty tricks to try and undermine its result, and stood by while an angry mob ransacked the citadel of American government.

All of that will only embolden other strongmen the world over and damage, perhaps beyond repair, the democracy that Americans have long believed stands as an example for all the world to follow.

World

Ireland’s election was a badly-kept secret – and there’s a clear reason why it’s been called

Published

33 mins ago

November 6, 2024

admin

Ireland's election was a badly-kept secret - and there's a clear reason why it's been called

So the worst kept secret in Irish politics is finally out, and the people look set to head to the ballot boxes on 29 November.

The taoiseach employs several lofty explanations for why he has decided upon an early election, but it’s hard to look beyond political expediency.

The Fine Gael party has been flying in the polls since Simon Harris became leader in April, while the opposition is in freefall. Sinn Fein, Ireland’s main opposition party, dropped to 16% in one recent poll – the lowest level of support since 2019.

Why wait until next March for an election? Going now ensures the voters will be getting the first benefits of the recent bumper €10.5bn (£9bn) giveaway budget (“buying votes” according to the opposition) as the polling cards arrive.

Going the parliamentary distance risks the current government buoyancy being sunk by events. A week is a long time in politics, four months an eternity. Why take the risk?

This election will largely be fought on the same issues as 2020. Four years of this coalition government has done nothing to convince voters that Ireland’s chronic housing problem is healing. Homelessness has hit a record high of 14,500.

The health system still creaks and groans under pressure, despite huge investment.

Immigration may be a new factor; concerns over a surge in asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland mean the topic could be a key issue for the first time in an election here.

A chunky budget surplus, full employment, tax cuts and benefit hikes – what Sir Keir Starmer wouldn’t give to be in Simon Harris’s shoes.

But for many citizens, Ireland is a rich country that often feels like a poor country. So the saying goes, at least.

Success for the government parties in this election will rely on reminding the voters of the first part of that truism and glossing over the latter part.

Extra pre-Christmas cash for punters, a hamstrung opposition and that new leader bounce all help greatly – Mr Harris kicks off this campaign in a strong position to be returned as Ireland’s prime minister.

It’s the government’s election to lose.