A mum who was allegedly raped by multiple strangers after being drugged by her own husband today faced them all in a packed court room.
Gisèle Pélicot, a 72-year-old French woman, waived her legal right to anonymity on Monday at the opening of the trial of Dominique Pélicot, 71, and 51 other men.
All are accused of aggravated rape in a trial at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, which is due to last for four months. Twenty of them, including Pélicot, are in custody, while the others remain on bail.
Asked to confirm his name and address at the start of proceedings, Pélicot said: “My home is prison, you know it”. Ms Pélicot, a mother-of-three, was supported by her adult children as she stood in the public gallery, listening to evidence.
The family home, in nearby Mazan, allegedly became a crime scene over almost a decade, when streams of men were invited to attack Ms Pélicot. Her husband is said to have used an online platform called coco.fr to contact them between 2011 and 2020.
Holy shit, how does it get worse. Of course it does. The daughter:
Ms Darian told Le Parisien this week that she was haunted by the fear her father may have invited some of the men to rape her after a picture of her “in someone else’s underwear” was found on his computer.
Gisèle Pélicot has waived her right to anonymity to insist that her rape trial remains public so “this never happens again”.
Mrs Pélicot insisted the trial should not go on behind closed doors because “that’s what her attackers would have wanted”, said Antoine Camus, one of her lawyers.
This lady is a fucking badass. I can’t respect anyone more than I respect her for this move.
