The trial of 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot, who allegedly drugged his wife for over a decade to facilitate her rape by dozens of strangers, has entered its final stages in Avignon, France.
This case, which has drawn outrage and sparked a national debate on male violence, involves Pelicot and 49 other defendants, with one still at large.
Pelicot’s former wife, Gisele, has emerged as a powerful advocate, turning her trauma into a call for public awareness of the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse. She insisted on an open trial to expose the horrific acts, stating, “The shame isn’t ours to feel; it’s theirs.”
The court has spent the past 10 weeks examining the evidence against the 47 accused men, with the final four defendants set to testify.
These individuals come from various walks of life—a journalist, a transport worker, a gardener, and a retiree. Most defendants claim they believed they were participating in consensual role-play, unaware that Gisele had been drugged.
However, prosecutors have confronted them with videos Pelicot meticulously documented, showing nearly 200 instances of rape, with over 90 involving strangers.
While Dominique Pelicot has confessed to being a rapist, only 14 co-defendants have admitted to charges of aggravated rape, facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The remaining defendants deny any wrongdoing, insisting they were misled into thinking they were part of consensual activities. Gisele, however, maintains that she never gave her consent.
The horrifying ordeal came to light in 2020 when Gisele, who had suffered memory lapses and health issues for years, discovered that her husband had been drugging her and inviting strangers to assault her in their home.
The meticulous records Pelicot kept, stored on a hard drive labeled “abuse,” led police to identify 50 suspects after his initial arrest for unrelated voyeurism charges.
The trial has been emotionally charged, with Gisele’s children regularly attending in support. Her daughter, who goes by the pseudonym Caroline Darian, believes she was also drugged by her father after disturbing photomontages were found on his computer.
As the trial reaches its conclusion, closing arguments and sentencing recommendations are expected later this week, with a final verdict due by December 20.
