Time for 'macho' society to change attitude on rape, Gisele Pelicot says in court

Gisele Pelicot, the woman at the centre of France’s mass rape trial, said on Tuesday that it was time for a “macho” society to change its attitude on rape, as she gave her final statement in court.

“It’s time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape changes,” said Gisele Pelicot, whose ex-husband and dozens of other men are on trial in France accused of raping her while she was drugged.

“It’s time we changed the way we look at rape.”

Since early September her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot has been in the dock in the southern city of Avignon along with 49 other men. Another defendant is still at large.

The trial entered its final stages this week, with Gisele and Dominique Pelicot addressing the court before prosecutors are set to give their closing arguments and make their sentencing demands for the defendants.

Earlier Tuesday, the court heard the final defendant.

Gisele, 71, said the marathon hearings were the trial of “cowardice”.

“I’ve seen people take the stand who deny rape, and some who admit it,” she said.

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“I want to say to these men: at what point did Mrs Pelicot give you her consent when you entered the room? At what point do you become aware of this inert body? At what point do you not report it to the police?”

“I can hear this gentleman saying ‘a finger is not rape’,” Gisele Pelicot added.

Investigators have counted around 200 instances of rape, most of them by her husband and more than 90 by strangers.

Gisele said her former husband “had a lot of fantasies that I couldn’t fulfil”.

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“But why did it come to this? I think what he wanted was Mrs Pelicot and not someone else,” she added.

“As I didn’t want to go to a swingers’ club, he thought he’d found the solution by putting me to sleep.”

“I’ve lost 10 years of my life that I’ll never make up for,” she added.

“This scar will never heal.”

The case of 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot has sparked horror, protests and a debate about male violence in French society.

If convicted, he would emerge from the historic trial with a record as one of France’s worst sex offenders.

Gisele’s life was shattered in 2020 when she discovered that her partner of five decades had for years been secretly administering her large doses of tranquilisers to rape her and invite dozens of strangers to join him in their home in the village of Mazan.