The horrific Pélicot rape trial continues to shock and revolt, after a grandmother discovered she had been unknowingly drugged by her husband so scores of strangers could rape her in her own bedroom.
Gisele Pélicot, 71, was routinely knocked out by her husband, Dominique Pélicot, 71, who would drug her with a mix of sleeping pills and tranquillisers.
He would then invite men he had met online to come to their home in Mazan, near Avignon in France, to rape Gisele over a period of time that lasted nearly a decade.
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The mother-of-three and grandma-of-seven has waived her right to anonymity as she gives evidence against her partner of 50 years who subjected her to the nightmare betrayal from 2011 and 2020.
She is also giving evidence against 50 other men at the Vaucluse Criminal Court in Avignon.
As the case continues, more harrowing bombshells has been brought to light. Here’s what we know so far.
(Image: Supplied)
Gisele’s husband ‘let 72 men rape’ her
Gisele was allegedly sedated before she was sexually assaulted dozens of times in the family home, the court heard.
Dominique is said to have advertised online for people to perform sex acts on his unconsenting and unconscious wife. He is accused of organising the sex ring and stands on trail alongside 51 other men, aged between 26 and 73 and included restaurateurs, plumbers, firemen, civil servants, soldiers and shopkeepers, who have been identified and arrested.
On Monday, September 3, Gisèle told the court how the allegations sent her spiralling into a deep depression and left her suicidal.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Upskirting exposed the sex ring
Dominique had been arrested for taking up skirting photos in a supermarket in November 2020. Gisele supported her “nice guy” husband, accompanying him to the police staton.
However the court heard that at the station, a lieutenant slid a photograph across the table and asked Gisele “Is this your room?”
The photo showed Gisele with a man she didn’t know in her own bedroom. A second photo was produced. Gisele told the court: “I’m being raped. The trauma is enormous, I want to go home.”
Gisele’s lawyer convinced her to watch the videos Dominique had allegedly fastidiously recorded, archive and captioned, as the trail approached.
She told the court: “I was sacrificed on the altar of vice. It’s a dead woman on a bed. This isn’t a bedroom, it’s an operating theatre. They treat me like a garbage bag, a rag doll. These aren’t sex scenes, these are rape scenes, it’s unbearable, unbearable.”
(Image: GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Dominique kept nudes of his daughter
Dominique, who’s facing 20 years in jail for his crimes, had reportedly kept nude photos of their daughter, Caroline Darian, on his laptop, it emerged.
He kept the images in a file titled ‘Around my daughter, naked’. It contained pictures of her naked, while allegedly drugged.
In her book about the ordeal, And I stopped calling you Daddy, Caroline says she fears her father invited men to rape her too.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Wife diagnosed with STDs
Gisele revealed she had found out she had contracted four sexually-transmitted disease, after her husband reportedly allowed more than 70 men to rape her.
Gisele told Judge Roger Arata that she was tested for HIV, adding: “I was diagnosed with four sexually-transmitted diseases at the Versailles medical forensic unit.”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Inside Dominique’s sex ring
Dominique allegedly set up the sex ring online, on a site for ‘partners’ and in a forum called ‘Without her Knowing’.
In the wretched forum, participants would discuss performing sex acts on unwitting partners while filming. Clips were stored non a USB drive dubbed Abuses. Police were able to get their hands on Dominique’s, and identified the 92 cases of rape.
Of the 83 men involved, 51 have been identified and arrested. It’s alleged, they were invited around to the Pélicots’ to rape Gisele, after Dominique drugged her during dinner.
They were told to wash their hands and to not wear aftershave, so Gisele would not know they were strangers.
The trial continues.
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