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WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Gisèle Pelicot, whose husband orchestrated her mass rape over a 10-year span, on Tuesday condemned the cowardice of the dozens of men accused of abusing her who claim they didn’t realize it was rape.
She added France’s patriarchal society must change.
Dominique Pelicot, her husband, has admitted to drugging his wife and inviting strangers to their house to rape her while she was unconscious, in a trial that has attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence.
Most of the 50 other men on trial have said they did not realize they were raping her, did not intend to rape her or put all the blame on her husband, whom they said had manipulated them.
“For me, this is the trial of cowardice, there is no other way to describe it,” Gisèle Pelicot said, adding that there was no excuse for abusing her when she was unconscious.
Video recorded by her husband and shown in court over the past weeks has repeatedly featured her motionless, sometimes snoring, while the accused abused her.
“When you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point (do you decide) not to react,” she said, in an address to the accused, many of whom were in the courtroom. “Why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police?”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, only learned of the abuse four years ago when police stumbled upon videos and pictures her husband recorded of the abuse he orchestrated.
‘Rape is rape’
She told the court she was angry at the accused, not least because any of them could, at any time, have put an end to her ordeal if they had denounced her husband.
“They must take responsibility for their actions. They raped. Rape is rape,” she added.
It is the third time Gisèle Pelicot has addressed the court in Avignon, in southern France, as the trial heads toward delivering its verdicts and sentences around Dec. 20.
Under French law, Gisèle Pelicot could have asked for the trial to be kept behind closed doors. Instead, she asked for it be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show that victims have nothing to be ashamed of.
“It is time for society to look at this macho, patriarchal society and change the way it looks at rape,” she told the court. She said she would never forgive her husband.
On Monday, the Pelicots’ two sons asked the court to punish him severely and also said they would never forgive him and that he was dead to them. Their sister said she believed Dominique Pelicot had also drugged and abused her.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, is due to address the court later on Tuesday. His lawyer Beatrice Navarro told reporters he was “very dejected.”
“I told him that we should not leave this hearing without him having given exactly the reasons why he acted like that against his wife,” Navarro said. “So, with all my heart, I hope that we will come out of this tonight with an explanation.”
Lawyer Stéphane Babonneau says Gisèle Pelicot cannot forgive the ‘cowardice’ of the 50 men accused of raping her while she was drugged unconscious by her husband. Any one of them could have warned the authorities anonymously, ‘and so for her this is also the trial of cowardice,’ he said.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.