Warning: this article discusses rape and sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
Taking to the stand in court today as part of one of the most sickening sexual abuse cases to rock the globe, rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot has issued a vital message to fellow victims.
The mother-of-three appeared before a judge and jury today (23 October), where her former husband Dominique Pelicot stands on trial after admitting to drugging her before inviting a hoard of strangers to rape her sleeping body.
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The 71-year-old was apprehended earlier this year after French authorities discovered records of the heinous assaults inside the Pelicot property, indicating that Dominique had filmed every stomach-wrenching interaction.
Fifty other men - with ages ranging between 26 and 74 and a mix of professions, including a fire officer and a journalist - stand accused of having abused Gisèle between 2011 and 2020, after her husband drugged her with a mix of sedatives and anti-anxiety medication before he invited the strangers to their Mazan, Provence home via chatroom.
The last two months of the hearing have included countless men denying rape accusations, with some claiming to have had no knowledge of the drugging, and others alleging that Gisèle had consented to the abuse. More also insisted they believed they were joining in on an organised sex game between the married couple.
Today, however, it was the survivor's turn to take to the stand, after judges saw it reasonable for her to comment on what the courtroom has heard so far.
Gisèle - who has since been praised by millions of women all over the world for her feminist courage and integrity so far throughout the trial - began her testimony by speaking directly to the man she'd spent the majority of her life married to.
"So many times, I said to myself how lucky am I to have you at my side," she began, before recalling the times she doubted her own sanity after enduring mental blackouts.
"He took me to neurologists, to scanners when I was worried," she told the court. "He also went with me to the gynaecologist. For me, he was someone I trusted entirely.”
"How can the perfect man have got to this? How could you have betrayed me to this point? How could you have brought these strangers into my bedroom?"
Then, describing herself as a woman who has been 'totally destroyed by what happened to her', she issued an important message to fellow sexual abuse survivors.
"I wanted all woman victims of rape - not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels – I want those woman to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too," she bravely stated.
"When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them."
Adding to her warning, she went on: "The profile of a rapist is not someone met in a car park late at night. A rapist can also be in the family, among our friends.
"When I saw one of the accused on the stand last week who came into my bedroom and house without consent.
"This man, who came to rape an unconscious, 57-year-old woman – I am also a mother and grandmother ... I could have been his grandmother."
Topics: Crime, World News
Rhianna Benson