AVIGNON, France (AP) — A woman who was allegedly drugged by her now ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she was unconscious is expected to testify Thursday before a panel of French judges on her yearslong ordeal.
Her former spouse, Dominique Pélicot, now 71, and 50 other men are standing trial on charges of rape and face up to 20 years in prison. The trial started on Monday in the southern city of Avignon and is expected to run until December.
Gisèle Pélicot and her husband of 50 years were living in their family home in a small town in Provence with their three children. But in late 2020, her world collapsed.
A security agent caught her husband taking photos of women’s crotches in a supermarket, leading investigators to search Dominique Pélicot’s phone and computer, where they found thousands of photographs and videos of men appearing to rape his then-wife, Gisèle, in their home while she appears to be unconscious.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sexual abuse unless they consent. Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said she accepted that her name be published in the same way that she insisted that her trial be held in public.
Police officers investigating the case also found communications Dominique Pélicot allegedly sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals, in which he invited men to sexually abuse his wife. The website has been shut down.
Crude details of the repeated abuses, which investigators said began in 2011, and of the elaborate system Pélicot had put into place over 10 years emerged on Wednesday during the trial.
Men invited to the couple’s home had to follow certain rules — they could not talk loudly, had to remove their clothes in the kitchen, could not wear perfume nor smell of tobacco, French media reported.
They sometimes had to wait up to an hour and a half on a nearby parking lot for the drug to take full effect and render their victim unconscious.
Upon hearing some of the chilling details in court, the couple’s daughter, who appears naked in photomontages found on her father’s computer, broke down and had to leave the courtroom, French media reported.
Because Pélicot videotaped the alleged rapes, police were able to track down — over a period of two years — a majority of the 72 suspects they were seeking.
Besides Pélicot, 50 other men, aged 22 to 70, are standing trial. Several defendants are denying some of the accusations against them, alleging they were manipulated by Pélicot.
Over the next few months, the defendants will appear in small groups before a panel of five judges, with Pélicot scheduled to speak next week. Psychologists, psychiatrists and computer experts will also testify.
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Vaux-Montagny reported from Lyon, France