Woman testifies against her husband and suspects

A woman whose ex-husband allegedly drugged her so she could be raped by other men while she was unconscious testified Thursday that her world collapsed when police uncovered years of alleged abuse.

Gisele Pelicot, speaking in a calm and clear voice, told a court in Avignon, southern France, of the horrifying discovery that her former husband had systematically filmed alleged rapes by dozens of men, keeping thousands of images that were later found by investigators.

“It’s unbearable,” she testified. “I have so much to say, I don’t always know where to begin.”

Dominique Pelicot, now 71, and 50 other men have gone on trial on rape charges and face up to 20 years in prison. The trial began Monday and is expected to last until December. Thursday was the first day Gisele Pelicot testified.

The Associated Press does not typically identify victims of sex crimes. But Gisele Pelicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said she agreed to have her name published in the same way she insisted on a public trial.

She told the court she hoped her testimony would help spare other women from similar experiences. She said she had pushed for the trial to be held in public out of solidarity with other women who had not been recognised as victims of sex crimes.

She and her husband of 50 years lived in their family home in a small town in Provence with their three children until, in late 2020, their world fell apart.

“I thought we were a close couple,” she told the court.

But a security agent caught her husband taking photos of women’s crotches in a supermarket, prompting investigators to search Dominique Pelicot’s phone and computer. They found thousands of photos and videos of men apparently raping Gisele in their home while she appeared unconscious.

Shocked, she left her husband after the police showed her some of the photos.

“For me, everything is falling apart,” she testified. “These are scenes of barbarity, rape.”

She left with two suitcases, “everything I had left from 50 years of living together.” Since then, she said, “I have no identity anymore. … I don’t know if I’ll ever rebuild myself.

Police investigators found messages Dominique Pelicot allegedly sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals in which he encouraged men to sexually abuse his wife. The website was shut down.

The trial revealed details about the alleged abuses, which investigators say began in 2011, as well as a complex system that Pelicot implemented over a 10-year period.

According to French media, the men invited to the couple’s home had to follow certain rules – they could not talk loudly, they had to undress in the kitchen, they could not wear perfume or smell tobacco.

Sometimes they had to wait up to an hour and a half in a nearby parking lot for the drug to take full effect and render Gisele Pelicot unconscious.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of vice,” she testified. “They looked at me like I was a rag doll, like I was a garbage bag.”

Because Dominique Pelicot videotaped the alleged rapes, police were able to track down most of the 72 suspects they were looking for over the course of two years.

In addition to Pelicot, 50 other men aged 22 to 70 are on trial. Several of the defendants deny some of the charges against them, saying they were manipulated by Pelicot.

Over the next few months, the defendants will appear in small groups before a five-judge panel, and Pelicot is scheduled to speak next week. Psychologists, psychiatrists and computer experts will also testify.