Gisèle Pelicot, left, and Dominique Pelicot in court in September. Photos: Screenshots/Twitter
In the mass rape trial that’s currently roiling France, Dominique Pelicot, the 71-year-old man on trial for inviting over 80 men to rape his then-wife, Gisèle, while she was unconscious between 2011 and 2020, finished his testimony last week. Now, 49 of the men who sexually assaulted her are taking the stand. And though they all met Pelicot through a now-defunct message board called “Without their knowledge,” many of them purport that they, too, are victims in this exceedingly horrifying case.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, nine co-defendants (identified solely by their first name and last initial in the press) who’ve testified in court thus far have claimed Pelicot manipulated them into raping his wife by withholding the fact that he was secretly administering a drug that rendered her unconscious. Here are some examples of what they’ve said:
Husamettin D: “We fell into a trap,” and, “Yes, I’m a victim.”
Pelicot and the other men—who range in age from 26 to 74—are currently being charged with a number of crimes including rape, gang rape, and privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images. They all face up to 20 years in jail.
Pelicot was first discovered in November 2020, while French authorities were investigating him for taking photos up women’s skirts at a supermarket in southeastern France. On the man’s computer was a folder entitled “abuses” that contained thousands of photos and videos of Pelicot and other men—complete strangers—raping his then-wife while she was unconscious. In total, police counted 20,000 images and found that over 80 men had taken part. Gisèle had no idea.
On the stand, Pelicot apologized to his wife and family and went on to claim that he had been sexually abused as a child by a male nurse.
“I’m not looking for excuses, but these are the facts,” Pelicot said.
More disturbingly, a number of partners (and one ex-partner) of the men on trial defended their actions and instead, blamed Pelicot. One woman, identified only as “Corinne” said her ex-husband, Thierry P, was “very kind” and “always benevolent” towards her and their children. Where physical intimacy was concerned, she told the court that “he had always been respectful, when it was no, it was no, he never insisted. So I absolutely don’t understand why he’s here today.” In a particularly shocking moment, Corinne also admitted to considering reuniting with the man.
Another woman, Alexandra, described her partner, Simone M., as “a good person,” “very caring,” who had “rekindled the impetus of joy” in her “slightly damaged life.”
“He cooks, he cleans, he passes the tractor at my grandmother’s house,” the woman said on the stand. “He’s got his heart in the right place. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing in this story.” She also noted that he told her about the case when they met in 2022—largely lying about his involvement—and that she decided to get pregnant with his child anyway.
“He explained to me that he’d been involved in a very particular case, that a lady had been raped, but that he wasn’t one of them, that he’d gone to see, but it wasn’t at all what he thought, so he’d left straight away,” she claimed. Meanwhile, there is video evidence that the man repeatedly raped Pelicot’s wife.
A third woman, Samira, described her partner, Jérôme V., as “special” and said she visits him in prison on a regular basis: “I’m not giving up, I’ve been looking for answers to my questions for three and a half years. I know he’s special, I keep digging to find out what made him do it.”
All three men are expected to testify later this week.
