Topics: Crime, News, World News
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Warning: This article contains discussion of rape and sexual assault, which some readers may find distressing.
Gisèle Pelicot has given her first TV interview since her landmark rape court case, exposing the sexual violence she suffered at the hands of her husband and dozens of other men.
The 73-year-old grandmother was drugged unconscious and raped by her then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who was found guilty in 2024, and more than 70 different men he had recruited on the internet.
Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for the abuse that lasted nearly a decade between 2011 and 2020 after a four-and-a half month trial in Avignon that garnered global attention.
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She made the courageous decision to wave her right to anonymity and lift the closed-door proceedings, revealing who she was and what had happened to her to the world in order to shift the blame from victims onto abusers.
“I have nothing to be ashamed of. Shame must change sides,” Pelicot said on the trial’s opening day.
Now, Pelicot, who's memoir A Hym To Life, is set to be released on 17 February, has shared the one question she would ask her ex-husband.
On Wednesday (11 February), she gave her first televised interview since the trial, to public channel France 5.
Despite not speaking to him during the trial, Pelicot revealed she intends to visit the criminal in prison as part of her 'healing process'.
As reported by Metro, she told the TV channel: "I want to look him directly in the eye and ask him, 'Why did you do that?'"
Pelicot also talked about the traumatic moment police sat her down and showed her images of herself, unconscious as she was being assaulted.
She said: "'I don’t recognise myself in those photos. I said, ‘That’s not me.’ Then I put on my glasses, and there I discovered this lifeless woman with a man she didn’t know on her bed. I think my brain disassociated."
As reported in The Guardian, she wrote in her book: "I didn’t recognise the individuals. Nor this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was a rag doll.
“My brain stopped working in the office of Deputy Police Sergeant Perret.”
Speaking about her decision to lift her anonymity, Pelicot continued: "Shame sticks to you, it sticks to your skin. And that shame is a double sentence, it’s a suffering you inflict on yourself.
"I said to myself that fighting against that on an individual level was also fighting for the collective. I said if I could do it, other people could too … My message of hope to all victims is never have shame."
Since the landmark trial, Pelicot has been named by the Financial Times as one of the 25 most influential women of 2024, as well as being featured in the BBC’s 100 Women list the same year.
You can pre-order Pelicot's memoir here.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact the Rape Crisis England and Wales helpline on 0808 500 222, available 24/7. If you are currently in danger or need urgent medical attention, you should call 999.
