Gisele Pelicot, left, arrives within the Avignon courtroom space, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Lewis Joly/AP
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Lewis Joly/AP
AVIGNON, France — A person accused of drugging his then-wife and welcoming dozens of fellows to rape her over just about a decade is attesting in courtroom on Tuesday in southern France, in a case that has stunned the rustic. Dominique Pélicot, now 71, faces twenty years in jail if convicted. Whilst he prior to now confessed to investigators, the courtroom testimony will likely be the most important for the panel of judges to come to a decision at the destiny of a few 50 different males status trial along him, all accused of raping Gisèle Pélicot.
Many additionally hope his testimony will shed some mild — to take a look at to know the unthinkable. Gisèle Pélicot has turn into a logo of the combat in opposition to sexual violence in France for agreeing to waive her anonymity within the case, letting the trial be public, and showing brazenly in entrance of the media. She is anticipated to talk in courtroom after her ex-husband’s testimony on Tuesday. Underneath French legislation, the court cases within the court docket can’t be filmed or photographed. Dominique Pélicot is dropped at the courtroom thru a distinct front inaccessible for the media, as a result of he and a few different defendants are being held in custody throughout the trial. Defendants who aren’t in custody come to the trial dressed in surgical mask or hoods to steer clear of having their faces filmed or photographed. Bernadette Tessonière, a 69-year-old retiree who lives a 30 minutes force from Avignon, the place the trial is going down, arrived out of doors the courthouse at 7:15 a.m. to ensure she would protected a seat within the intently watched case. “How is it conceivable that during 50 years of communal lifestyles, one can are living subsequent to anyone who hides his lifestyles so neatly? That is frightening,” she mentioned, whilst status in a line out of doors the courthouse. “I would not have a lot hope that what he did may also be defined, however he’s no less than going to offer some parts.”
Pélicot’s much-awaited testimony was once behind schedule via days after he fell in poor health, affected by a kidney stone and urinary an infection, his legal professionals mentioned. A safety agent stuck Pélicot in 2020 filming movies beneath ladies’s skirts in a grocery store, in step with courtroom paperwork. Police searched Pélicot’s space and digital gadgets, and located hundreds of pictures and movies of fellows enticing in sexual acts with Gisèle Pélicot whilst she seems to lie subconscious on their mattress. With the recordings, police had been in a position to trace down a majority of the 72 suspects they had been looking for. Gisèle Pélicot and her husband of fifty years had 3 youngsters. After they retired, the couple left the Paris area to transport right into a space in Mazan, a small the city in Provence. When law enforcement officials referred to as her in for wondering in overdue 2020, she to begin with instructed them her husband was once “a perfect man,” in step with felony paperwork. They then confirmed her some pictures. She left her husband and they’re now divorced. But even so Pélicot, 50 different males, elderly 26 to 74, are status trial. Many deny having raped Gisèle Pélicot, pronouncing they had been manipulated via her ex-husband or claiming they believed she was once consenting.
