By her own description she had always been 'a prude' and had only allowed two men to touch her - one of whom was her husband, sitting, shamefaced, to her left in the dock.
Yesterday, however, Gisele Pelicot stood amid a sea of previously faceless men, all of whom had allegedly raped her while she slept, and calmly confronted
h the anguish they had caused her.
In a 90-minute testimony, praised by the chief prosecutor as 'dignified and courageous', the 71-year-old grandmother said
sacrificed on the altar of vice.'
'I was a dead woman and these men take advantage of me, they defile me, they treat me like a bin bag. It is unbearable and I don't know if I will ever
to get up (off the floor) again.'
Dismissing the claim made by some of them - that she had really been conscious and aware of the degrading acts to which she was subjected - she said: 'My body might have been warm,
온라인 비아그??
as like a dead person.'
Gisele Pelicot (pictured) stood amid a sea of previously faceless men, all of whom had allegedly raped her while she slept, and calmly confronte
br>
Husband Dominique (pictured, centre) drugged her
n to rape her
The son of Gisele Pelicot, Florian (L) and her daughter Caroline Darian (R) leave the criminal
, 05 September 2024
The sons of Gisele Pelicot, Florian, right, David, left, 비아그라 구매 and her daughter Caroline Darian, center, arrive
se, southern France
This is where the Pelicots lived, which
ouse of horrorsArtist drawing from the court of Gisele Pelicot in front of
ts on trial
The court had heard how her husband Dominique Pelicot, 71, drugged her to be rap
are now
with him.
Read More
Depraved husband 'let HIV positive attacker rape his drugged wife
French court hears'I was anaesthetised like when you go into the operating theatre - afterwards you don't remember the opera
at is exactly what happened to me.'
For the men to suggest she had been conscious and perhaps even complicit was 'an insult to my intelligence' she said. 'These people knew exactly what they were doing and how lethargic I was. They didn't rape me with a gun or knife to their heads - they raped me in full consc
. They treated me like a rag-doll.'
When Judge Roger Arata gave her the opportunity to address her alleged defilers directly, she told them they had caused her 'unbearable' pain and feelings of 'disgust', calling on them to final
the responsibility of their acts'.
Mme Pelicot's victim statement at the Avignon court hearing was the most electrifying moment so far in an already emotionally-charged trial that is scandalising France. Perhaps to enhance her show of indomitability, she chose to wear a vivid ora
s beneath her stylish white jacket.
Though she was driven to the brink after learning how her husband allowed dozens of men to abuse her over ten years, she spoke yesterday with great composure, in the mellifluou
l, middle-class France.
Beatrice Zavarro (C), lawyer for the accused Dominique P, speaks with lawyers at the courthouse during the trial of her client accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting s
zan
The town of Mazan, 20 miles from Avignon in southern France, where the victim and h
attacks took place
Gisele Pelicot (C) sits next to her daughter Caroline Darian (2ndL) and her sons Florian Pelicot (L) and David Pelicot (2ndR) with his wife Celine F. (R), at the courthouse dur
September 2
Her demeanour contrasted with that of her daughter, Caroline Darian, now in her 40s, who wept sof
er mother
statement.
Read More
Pictured: House of horrors where cops found 20,000 videos o
g woman drugged by husband'With her brother,
비아그라 구매 Florian, and other
relatives also moved to tears (and even the occasional wipe of a rheumy eye from Pelicot - deemed by psychologists to 'lack empathy')
ly were a tableau of utter despair.
One needed only to glance across the packed courtroom to grasp how they had been destroyed by the vile, self-gratifying sex games or
ed by their once-revered patriarch.
After commending the police officers who brought Pelicot to justice, his now-ex wife related the full background to this grisly story - a modern-day parable of perfidy and perversion f
ed by dark corners of the internet.
She began on September 19, 2020 - the day police phoned her at the couple's rented retirement home,
비아그라 효과 a secluded chalet with a swimming pool in the Provencal town of Mazan, to break the news that her h
ad been arrested for a sex offence.
The crime, to which he had immediately admitted, was using his mobile phone to take surreptitious photographs up the skirts of three women in a shopping centre. However, 'Monsieur Pelicot' (as she referred to him, with ill-deserved respect throughout her testimony) had explained to her that he had been having 'impulses' and a
wouldn't happen again.
Madame Pelicot is pictured above as she
ng>
Dominique Pelicot is accused
/u>
A black and white facial reconstruction of a younger Domi
this handout image
Caroline Darian's book
So, she said, she gave him a second chance - never imagining the 'magnitude' of the crimes that this relatively minor affair would soon uncover. More than a month passed before she learned the full extent of her husband's depravity, and that he had been unwittingly using her as a s
the depraved sex scenes he filmed.
On November 2, 2020, after returning from Paris, where she had been caring for their four grandchildren, s
ummoned back to the police station.
'That day will be seared in my memory for ever,' she said. For the first hour of her interview, she had assumed it mus
nected to the 'upskirting' episode.
Yet as she was plied with more searching questions about her family and marriage - which was totally fine, she assured officers - she suspected a fa
erious investigation was under way.
She was asked if she and her husband spiced up their love life by 'swinging' with other couples. Certainly not, she replied, 비아그라 구매 adding: 'I am a one-man woma
't want anyone else's hands on me.'
The police officer then took out a photograph from the files on his desk and handed it to her. It showed a woman lying on a bed, and he asked Mme Pelicot whether she recognised her. As sh
wearing her glasses, she couldn't.
It was only when he showed her a second, clearer picture that she realised the woman she was looking at was her - and that she was lying in an 'unusual' position with a strange man behind her.