Pelicot r*pe Case, The: A Town on Trial (2024)

[bunniefuu]

So many times, I said to myself

how lucky I am

to have you at my side.

A kind and considerate man

who I trusted entirely.

How can the perfect man

have got to this?

How could you have betrayed me

like this?

How could you have brought

these strangers into my bedroom?

We're going to take you to France.

This is a really distressing story.

A 71-year-old has admitted drugging

and raping his wife

over a period of ten years.

He also invited other men

to do the same.

This case has captured

the imagination of the world.

It's unlike anything

we've ever seen before.

Many questioning now,

how such dreadful sexual violence

could take place on such a big scale.

He was able to manipulate

everyone around him for years

without them having any idea

of what was going on.

There are around 72 different men.

But they can't identify all of them.

Who are these men?

The majority of the accused,

they still deny responsibility.

He didn't tell me

that he was going to drug his wife.

I don't know about the others,

but for me, I'm not a monster.

The rest of the courtroom

fell completely silent,

as Gisle Pelicot said she wanted

to address her ex-husband directly.

I've covered

many court cases of r*pe.

Normally, there's one accused,

there is one victim,

there's almost no one in the court.

The courtroom is packed.

There's so much

that's so unusual about this trial.

You have journalists and then lawyers

and lots of accused

who's all around you.

I've never seen

before in a courtroom

where you had the accused

sitting all around you.

Most particularly something

that's this sensitive.

In September 2024, a trial began

that would shock the world.

At the center of it

was 72-year-old Gisle Pelicot.

Her husband Dominique admitted

drugging and raping her

for almost a decade.

Alongside him stood 50 other men,

all accused of raping

or sexually assaulting

an unconscious Gisle,

whilst Dominique filmed them.

All have been found guilty.

Some of them have admitted to r*pe

and pleaded guilty.

Others have said

that they were duped,

that they were manipulated

by Dominique Pelicot

into believing this was a sex game.

Some of them have said,

"I didn't intend to r*pe that woman."

"I am not a r*pist."

Despite the video evidence

against them,

the level of denial has been aided

by the French law around r*pe,

which has no mention

of the word " consent".

Many of them have hung their defense

that they never intended

to r*pe her.

They went there for a threesome

and time and time again,

the main judge has asked

each of these defendants,

"Did you talk to her?

Did you get consent from her?"

And they have all said,

"No, I did not talk to her."

"I never got consent from her."

But the long-lasting effect of this

will be conversations in France

and across the world really saying,

how did we get here?

Is the misogyny so ingrained

in French culture?

The world has watched on

and in a matter of weeks,

Gisle Pelicot has become

an iconic figure.

Her stand has highlighted

issues of shame,

consent and sexual violence.

They tell me I am brave.

I say it's not bravery.

It's will and determination

to change society.

Seeing the images from courtroom

and outside, you must remember

that every day,

Gisle is walking past the men

who are accused of raping her.

They have their hoods up,

they wear masks, balaclavas,

they cover their faces

in order to hide their identities.

And then you have this woman

striding past them.

Entering the court to applause

from the public gallery.

And every day, she has to find

the strength to face them.

People across the world have shown

their support for Gisle Pelicot.

From messages scrawled on walls

near the courthouse,

to mass protests of thousands

across numerous cities.

This is a story about domestic abuse

writ large with r*pe

and then you have strangers involved.

So, I think the horror of that,

the relatability of Gisle Pelicot,

and her brave and very rare decision

to make the court case public.

And because she did that,

that is why this is a global story.

This story that has become global

has shaken Mazan terribly.

Situated 21 miles

northeast of Avignon,

it's a small, medieval village

with a population of just over 6000.

It was here the Pelicots lived,

and it was here

that Gisle suffered years of abuse.

It is a peaceful town

which has been destroyed by this case

because people now equate Mazan

with the r*pe cases.

People have had enough of hearing

about the case.

They don't understand why people

associate the name of their town

with this r*pe case.

Locals have seen the story labelled

on French news as the Affair Mazan.

The name of their home has become

inextricably linked to the trial

and splashed across the headlines.

Well, this story, my God.

It falls on us a bit like a meteor,

like a meteorite,

because you could never have imagined

something like this.

One local is Marion,

who runs a center

for victims of sexual violence.

All at once, this quiet village

is seen by the whole world.

Media from all over the world

come to pick them apart

and we are not prepared for this.

There's frustration that the village

has been tarnished

with only three defendants,

including Dominique

being from Mazan.

Most of the suspects lived

within a 40-mile radius.

But there is also tension

and suspicion.

While the police have identified 50

of the men filmed by Dominique,

another 22 suspects remain at large.

And what's more, it's a village

that it is traditional, patriarchal.

So a case like this, involving abuse,

r*pe and sexuality,

is taboo, nobody talks about this.

Regardless of where these crimes

took place,

so many are wondering

how they could have happened.

It's scary that all this came out

effectively by chance.

This all starts to unravel

for Dominique Pelicot

when he's caught by a security guard

upskirting a woman

in a supermarket in Carpentras.

He was filming under your dress

with his phone!

The video that Dominique took

of him upskirting this woman emerges.

And what we see is his face

wearing a Covid mask

and his camera

subtly slip towards her skirt.

He's then confronted

by a security guard.

He was filming under your dress

with his phone!

- No.

- Yes! You file a complaint?

- He was filming under your dress!

- That's four people.

It's true. We follow him

on the camera, that's four times!

Come on, to the Police now!

When he's caught,

it's the careless mistake of someone

who has been meticulous

in keeping secret his perversion.

He's had this irrepressible desire

to upskirt this woman.

We should have found them.

There are three others.

You're a really disgusting person.

Yeah, really disgusting.

That's why this case

is so terrifying,

is that we know

there are so many instances

of sort of "minor" sexual crimes

like upskirting

that aren't investigated properly.

And it was only

because the police took this action

that they found out

what was going on.

When speaking to police,

Dominique claimed

he had been overcome by urges

as his wife had been away from home

for a month.

He said this is out of character.

Dominique Pelicot sits her down

and starts crying and tell her,

"Gisle, I've done a big mistake."

"I've done something stupid.

"I've been caught taking videos

of women's crotch

under their skirts. Upskirting."

And she pauses a moment,

she thinks about it,

40 plus years together.

She knows she can forgive him,

but she says,

"You must apologize to this woman."

"And if you do that ever again,

I'm out. I'm leaving you."

And he apologizes,

he says, "It'll never happen again."

But little does she know

the scale of abuse

that he's perpetrated

over the last ten years.

In 50 years of life together,

he had never made

any obscene gestures.

I tell him,

"I will forgive you this time,

but there won't be a next time."

He was filming with his phone.

He was filming under your dress!

In September 2020,

Dominique Pelicot

is stopped by a security guard

for upskirting women

in a supermarket.

Inspired by legislation

introduced in the UK,

it's an act that was made ill*gal

in France in 2018.

The security agent plays

a very important role in this story,

because if he hadn't insisted

on the woman who was being filmed

going to the police station,

she might have never done it.

She might have thought,

"This guy's a weirdo, but whatever."

I'll just go home and forget

about this incident and moving on.

Come on, to the Police!

You stay there. You don't move.

Madam, I am counting on you

to file a complaint.

But a video was leaked of that day

in the French media,

and you can clearly hear

the security agents saying,

"Madame, you need to go

to the police."

"This is the fourth time

he's doing it today."

"You have to press charges."

And she did it and that led

to the police investigation.

Images in the French media show

how cameras caught Dominique

using a bag with a hidden device.

So, he's been arrested for, you know,

what some people would say

is a minor sexual crime.

It's a drop in the ocean compared

to what's been really happening.

Later, police find in the bag

that he had with him a camera,

a camcorder and some condoms.

Dominique Pelicot,

he had two phones in his bag.

The police investigator found

something on one of those phones.

There was only one app on the iPhone,

it was Skype.

And so, he opened Skype,

and he saw all these images,

photos of women lying unconscious

on their beds

and naked men around them.

And he decided to call his superior

and to launch an investigation

into this matter.

All of Dominique's digital devices

from his home were seized.

On a USB stick, police discover

a folder titled "Abuse."

Inside it, they found

meticulously labeled folders

containing more than 20,000 videos

and photos.

They appeared to show different men

having sex with one woman.

At the time, police don't know

what's going on.

They noticed that it's the same woman

in every video,

and then later, they realize

that that is Pelicot's wife.

With so much evidence, the police

faced a long investigation.

Who were these men?

Was any of this consensual?

Could they be watching one woman

being subjected to years of abuse?

They began to dig into the lives

of Dominique and Gisle Pelicot.

They walked a very private life,

quiet life.

Had three children,

raised them in the Paris region,

had seven grandchildren.

Then retired, moved down to the south

of France as a typical family.

Nothing all that interesting

or notable about them.

I think that makes it

super relatable.

For all intents and purposes,

they had a happy retirement.

She said they had quite a happy

and fulfilling marriage.

He made a lot of meals,

I saw that as him being attentive.

One night, he came to collect me

at Avenal Station

after ten days

with my grandchildren.

He had already prepared the meal.

Two plates were already in the oven.

I put olive oil on my potatoes,

and he put butter,

so it was easy to see

which plate was his.

We would have a glass

of white wine together.

Often, when there was

a football match on TV,

I'd let him watch it alone.

He brought me my ice cream to bed,

my favorite flavor, raspberry.

I told him, "How lucky I am."

"You're a love,

you really take care of me."

Despite their

seemingly idyllic life,

there were signs

that something might be wrong.

As early as 2013,

when the couple first moved to Mazan,

Gisle was having some health issues,

so she's experiencing memory loss.

She was losing her hair,

losing weight.

I think it was the memory loss,

that really started to flag

to the wider family

that something was going on.

It was this very awkward,

weird sensation

where she felt like she was losing

conception of time

and losing her life.

Her life was kind of escaping her.

So, she went to three neurologists.

She thought maybe she had

Alzheimer's.

Dominique was being

incredibly supportive,

so Gisle was being driven crazy,

wondering what was going on.

But knowing that she had

this supportive husband beside her.

He's telling her that she'll be fine,

that she's got nothing

to worry about.

No one could tell her exactly

what was going on.

No one could think of the unthinkable

and no one could imagine

the unimaginable.

And it was only when Dominique

was caught upskirting women in 2020

that suddenly things started

to slip into place.

It's two months after Dominique

has been arrested

for upskirting in a supermarket.

Gisle has forgiven her husband,

but then, they are summoned

to the police station.

They have a normal morning together

in the house

and then they drive

to the police station.

Gisle thinks that this is linked

to the upskirting incident.

There's this powerful moment

when Gisle sees her husband

being called upstairs

to be questioned.

And she stays downstairs,

and they exchange a look,

having no idea that this is

the last time she'll see her husband.

The officer said,

"I will show you some things

which you will not find pleasant."

He opened a folder,

and he showed me a photograph.

It was hard to recognize myself

dressed up like that.

Then he showed me

a second photo and a third.

I asked him to stop.

It was unbearable.

I was inert, in my bed

and a man was raping me.

My world fell apart.

You can't stop yourself thinking,

what would it be like

to be Gisle in that moment?

The idea that you could be looking

at somebody who is beside you

when you're in a moment

of weakness and illness

and you feel so grateful to them,

and find out later

that they've been betraying you

in one of the most awful ways

imaginable, it's really sinister.

It's also the night

where she tells her children.

She calls her daughter first

and she tells her,

"I've got something horrible

to tell you."

And she tells her that her father

had been raping her for many years

and inviting unknown men to have sex

with her while she was unconscious.

And it's just an earthquake,

a shock wave in the family.

We have arrived in the town of Mazan.

Mazan is a fairly peaceful town,

it's very quiet.

Where there is not much to do.

It's a small Provenal town

where life is good.

We are approaching the place

where he made them park their cars.

Close to the stadium

which is right here.

This is where he told them to park,

the men who he met on the internet.

Dominique Pelicot came on foot

to meet them in person.

Sometimes he arrived

in his underwear,

with a dressing gown on top,

and then they'd walk

towards the house.

They had to walk about 100 meters

to reach the cul-de-sac

where the couple's house was located.

This is it, it's here.

This is where it all happened

from 2013 to 2020.

In a very peaceful, remote place,

in a nice house.

And it's here that this horror scene

happened for many years.

Gisle has been confronted

with videos showing her husband

and other men having sex with her

while she is sleeping.

Investigators have to piece together

how this could have happened.

The police establish from the videos

that this has been going on

for about ten years.

In 2011, the Pelicots

have been married for 40 years

and are living in Paris.

They are grandparents,

living a happy, peaceful life.

Dominique had started doing

the cooking at home

some years earlier.

So he took perverse pleasure

in telling her,

"My darling, I'll make dinner,

you can relax," etc.

Under the pretense

of caring for his wife,

Dominique started to drug her.

Pelicot was using

a drug called Temesta...

...an anti-anxiety medication.

Temesta, otherwise known

as Lorazepam,

is used to treat anxiety

and sleeping problems.

Dominique was using drugs

he was prescribed by his doctor.

He would crush the drug,

usually three pills,

and he would mix it in the food.

He often cooked with a lot of garlic,

a lot of onion, spices.

Full of taste and fragrances to hide

the taste and the color of the drug.

If he couldn't get it into her food,

he would bring her ice cream.

High dosages of Temesta can cause

someone to lose consciousness.

He brought me my ice cream to bed.

My favorite flavor, raspberry.

I told him, "How lucky I am."

"You're a love,

you really take care of me."

I never felt my heart race,

I didn't feel anything.

I must have gone under very quickly.

The drugs made Gisle fall

into a deep comatose-like sleep.

If you gave her the Temesta

too early, she would wake up early,

so you had to time everything.

There are a couple of occasions

documented on video

which show Gisle waking up

and she still had no memory of this.

Pelicot was working out

how to keep her unconscious.

The next day,

I was more tired than usual,

but I was working a lot

and thought it was that.

After drugging Gisle,

Dominique r*ped her.

This abuse continued for two years.

In 2013, the couple moved to Mazan.

There, Dominique escalated

his crimes.

He began inviting strangers

to take part.

Pelicot gave the men

quite extensive instructions.

He would tell them to park their car

at a nearby sports center.

So as not to arouse suspicion

of the neighbors.

He'd tell them they weren't allowed

to wear aftershave.

They shouldn't smoke

before they came over to his home.

Dominque was precise and meticulous

in his planning.

When they arrived,

there was a very specific procedure.

They had to wash their hands

and undress in the kitchen,

and especially not make any noise.

He even asked them

to warm their hands on the radiator

because cold hands

could wake Gisle up.

Pelicot was doing everything he could

to make sure that she didn't awake

or have any suspicions

about what happened that night.

I think he really enjoyed

giving those men that protocol.

It's, "I'm in control of this person.

I own this person."

"If you want access to her,

this is what you need to do,

because I'm the gatekeeper."

It's quiet, they're whispering

to not wake her up.

This is someone who is, literally,

in the deepest sleep.

She's like a corpse.

You know, it's a body.

Her jaw is kind of dropping

on the side, and she's snoring.

They do all these horrible things

to her and she's not moving.

She's obviously passed out

and she's not responding.

Often, she's naked,

or with her clothes pulled up

and her panties pulled down.

The men come up behind her often,

they're often masturbating

to get excited. And you see men...

sticking their penises

inside her vag*na, her bum,

her mouth

without ever talking to her.

These are scenes of barbarity.

They regarded me like a ragdoll,

like a garbage bag.

I am lying motionless on the bed,

being r*ped.

The fetish really comes through.

It's something called Somnophilia

and that is the fetish or the desire

to have sex with someone

who is unmoving and unconscious.

Sometimes it's disturbingly called

the "sleeping beauty" fetish.

This is a criminal act.

He has not requested consent

from his wife

to engage in this activity.

Police are only able to discover

the extent of the crimes

because Dominique had been filming.

Dominique Pelicot

was influenced by p*rn*graphy.

He was thinking himself

as a movie director.

He videos the sex scenes

or the r*pe scenes.

There's videos that are on a tripod,

but also often the videos

come in close.

You can hear her ex-husband

directing them.

He'll say like "Softly" or he'll use

some vulgar terms about her,

like "Stick it in the wh*re,"

or, you know, "She deserves this."

There were hundreds of files,

photos and videos of the abuse.

He meticulously organized them

and archived them.

He was making video montages

of every r*pe that was committed

and he categorized them by sex scene,

the duration, the date.

He classified

all the video the same way

that you can find them

on p*rn*graphy websites.

This is someone who loves

what they are doing,

but the planning, the organizing,

the rich fantasy world that someone

like Dominique would live in

is a big part of who he was.

He would've been thinking about this

all of the time.

Over the years,

Dominique started to look elsewhere.

Turning his attention

to his own daughter, Caroline.

Among these thousands of photos,

there were a number of her

in her father's catalog.

A number of them had been erased,

but were reconstituted

by digital experts at the police.

Dominique shared a different picture

of her and her mother online

with degrading comments about them.

There was also a photo montage of her

and her mother

coming out of the bathroom together

that was titled,

"My sl*t and Her Daughter."

Photos of the Pelicot's

daughters in law were also found.

They found photos of them,

not sleeping, but fully conscious,

taken with hidden cameras

in the bathroom

when they were getting out

of the bath, naked.

So there is Gisle,

and all the horror she has suffered,

but there is also the daughter

and the daughters-in-law.

He was that opportunist.

He was the constant voyeur.

Dominique had kept this secret life

hidden for almost a decade.

The psychiatrist evaluation

didn't reveal any mental illnesses

or serious mental disorders.

But he has two identities.

He needed to be able to show up

and act like a loving husband,

like a loving father,

so that he could serve

his greater purpose.

He was able to manipulate everyone

around him,

his children, their friends,

his wife for years

without them having any idea

of what was going on.

For 50 years, I lived with a man

who I never would have imagined

could be capable of this.

For me,

it was someone I trusted entirely.

The deception continued

as Gisle's health deteriorated.

The signs were there,

but I never knew how to decode them.

He's seeing her getting worried

about her health.

She's losing weight.

He goes with her to see the doctors.

But he says nothing

about what happens.

It's so sinister, like a nightmare.

The things she took as a sign of love

during a time of weakness in her life

was actually how he was able

to perpetrate these crimes.

Dominique had masterminded

a campaign of abuse

and spun a web of lies.

But he hadn't acted alone.

Now, my connection

to this case boils down

to about 20 minutes

when I was in the Pelicots' home

20 minutes.

The police investigation

into the videos

reveals the scale of the abuse

against Gisle.

They count nearly 200 instances

of alleged r*pe

carried out by Dominique Pelicot

and 72 others.

They are able to identify

50 of the men.

It troubles me,

the fact that I can't explain

how I got into this situation.

I had this encounter with Pelicot

which was an expl*si*n in my life.

It's a complete cross-section

of society.

The ages range from 26 to 74.

There is a firefighter,

a freelance journalist,

and some retirees too.

A soldier, a nurse,

a prison guard, a baker.

You have men who are unemployed,

and they have been described

by a Pelicot's lawyer

as an example of "Mr. Average."

Three of the defendants

are from Mazan itself,

including a neighbor

of the Pelicots.

One of them Gisle recognized

at the police station.

I saw him now and then

in the bakery, I would say hello.

He had once visited their home,

pretending that he was going

to see Dominique about his bike.

He enjoyed cycling,

he had many cyclist friends.

He came out to the Pelicot's house

to see Gisle in the flesh

before coming back

to allegedly sexually abuse her.

I never thought

he'd come and r*pe me.

The neighbor denies the allegation.

On other occasions, he had told men

who were eager to see her

before coming to the house

to meet them at the supermarket,

or he'd send photos or videos of her,

so they could see

what she looked like.

The profile of a r*pist

is not someone

who you meet in a car park

late at night.

The r*pist can also be in the family

or among friends.

The men traveled to Mazan

from up to 40 miles away.

Dominique had found

a method of recruitment.

Once the police

start asking question,

they discover Pelicot was inviting

men to his house via this website.

Dominique had signed up

to a French chatroom called Coco.

It was sort of advertised

as a dating site of sorts

where male users

had their accounts hosted in blue,

women in pink,

but couples were also in pink.

From the outside,

it seemed innocuous,

but inside, it was very different.

Behind its childlike interface,

the chatroom had a dark reputation.

The famous website linked

with a lot of criminal activities.

A sort of free forum gathering p*mps,

pedo-criminals, sex buyers.

Just being able to display

sexual content about women,

being able to chat about women

in the most sexist

dehumanizing language too.

Coco allowed users

to hide their real identity.

Dominique used a pseudonym

and he found a chatroom

called "Without Her Knowledge."

This is a discussion forum

about image based sexual abuse.

That is where he invited men

to join him and chat.

His nickname was "a couple seeking

a man for a woman."

He posted pictures of his wife

in underwear on this site,

and said, "Me and my wife

are interested in threesomes."

"Would you like to be involved?"

The conversation would continue

in private,

sometimes by text or on Skype.

He would ask the men for photos

of their face and genitals.

In exchange, he sent photos

of his wife.

The police say that Dominique's

messages were clear.

He invited men to r*pe Gisle

whilst she was unconscious.

We know that from one of the adverts,

he actually wrote,

"I'm looking for someone

to abuse my wife asleep."

"You're like me, you like r*pe mode?"

One of the defendants speaks

on camera for the first time.

He says that he was tricked.

He invited me to his house.

Through a ploy,

he had devised on the Coco chat site.

If he finds a pervert,

he'll tell them I'm drugging my wife,

because he knows they will accept,

but when he is faced

with someone normal,

he will use a trick.

In my case, it was a trick.

We had spoken one night before

and I didn't go round

because I found the man

to be very focused on sex.

I wanted to talk about friendship,

get to know each other, etc.

The next day, he did not give up.

He started talking

about a friendly relationship.

And so, I trust him that he is

a spokesman for his wife

and when he tells me

that his wife consents, I trust him.

I never, even for a single second

gave my consent

to Mr. Pelicot or those other men.

They committed r*pe.

Not for a moment did these men say

to themselves,

"Is there something wrong?"

I think Dominique really enjoyed

this sinister recruitment process,

finding those right people

and using an online space

as a very clever filtering process

to find those partners in crime.

The question that has stuck with me

during this trial

is how many men did Pelicot approach

who said no, but didn't report it?

Being online, it somehow removes

any form of accountability.

It can desensitize people as well

from the harms that they are causing.

Dominque looked for men to help him

take his crimes a step further.

The only man who is not charged

with r*pe in this case is Marechal.

He's also known sometimes

as Dominique Pelicot's disciple.

Jean-Pierre Marechal

and Dominique met on Coco.

Marechal, a retired lorry driver

had learned from Pelicot

how to drug his own wife

and invited Dominique

over to his home to r*pe her

and used the same sedation technique

that Pelicot had been using

on Gisle.

Dominique went to Marechal's house,

and together, they r*ped his wife

while she was unconscious.

At court, both men admit

the drugging

and raping of Jean-Pierre's wife

over a five-year period.

I think he enjoyed this idea

of teacher, student.

I think that Dominique was trying

was to find other like minds

who would engage

in the same activity.

The ten years of abuse

came to an end

when Dominque was arrested

in 2020.

Four years later,

one of the most shocking trials

in French history begins.

It's a very tense atmosphere.

Dominique Pelicot is taking

this position, like, "I am guilty."

"I have admitted to everything."

"They all knew and I'm a r*pist

and they are rapists too."

If the accused denies raping

or denies penetration,

then the court decides

to show the videos.

Four years after Gisle's world

is turned upside down,

the r*pe trial of Dominique Pelicot

and 50 other men begins in Avignon.

Arriving at court

to applause each day.

Gisle is greeted by members

of the public and the world's media.

This case has received

so much attention

because Gisle

waived her right to anonymity.

And in doing so, this has allowed

the world's media

to be able to be there in the courts

and publicize the trial to the world.

Usually, trials that concern sexist

and sexual violence in France,

they are behind closed doors.

When you open the door

to this kind of trial,

you know that your life

will be exposed and scrutinized,

so that's a very brave thing to do.

I wanted all women

who are victims of r*pe

to be able to say "Mrs. Pelicot

did it. We can do it too."

When you are r*ped, there is shame

and it's not for us to have shame.

It is for them.

Journalists from all over the world

come to this trial every day

from England, Spain, even Brazil,

the United States, Australia, Japan.

It feels like this trial speaks

to the whole world.

The attention that Gisle

has received during this trial

is like nothing

she's ever experienced in her life.

She is a grandmother

and a former logistics manager,

and suddenly, she has come

to represent for any woman

who has ever been sexually assaulted.

This paragon of bravery.

At court, Gisle Pelicot walks past

just some of the 50 men,

accused of raping her

while she lied unconscious.

There's the pressure

of all the individuals behind me

and I can sense they are trying

to trip me up with their questions.

Thirty-five of the 50 men

deny raping Gisle.

One of the challenges in this case

is that consent is not included

within the legal definition

of French r*pe law.

There is a duty to prove

that the accused had the intention

to actually commit r*pe.

Some of them have said, "It was not

my intent to r*pe a woman."

"I'm not a r*pist".

A couple of them said

they first thought she was dead,

but they managed to reconcile that

in their head

and go ahead with their plan.

Others feel like

they're the victim here.

This defendant denies

the allegation of r*pe.

I did not go

with the intention of r*pe.

I'm not a r*pist.

I'm the child of a battered woman.

As soon as I saw Pelicot

at his house,

this man was scary.

It awakened a traumatic memory

from my childhood

that terrorized me to the point

that I lost all judgment

and I followed his directions

and orders.

When I arrived,

the woman was already asleep.

And I ask for permission.

I start to touch her and she moves.

So in my mind, I tell myself

that she's pretending.

And then he asks me to do this,

to do that.

He tells me to insert my finger

into her vag*na.

I didn't even have control

of my fingers.

Madame Pelicot, in our scenario

was the victim of a r*pe.

As for me, I was a victim of terror.

We are two victims.

There is one predator

and two victims.

Many will tell the courts

that something was off,

I wanted to leave, I wasn't thinking,

but no one called the police.

This defendant claims

that Gisle must have noticed

signs of the abuse.

I find it hard

to hear Madame Pelicot say

that she thought

she lived with a perfect man.

She noticed things, but turned

the other way because of love.

It's a message to women.

Even if you are in love,

don't forgive anything.

Victim blaming happens often

in cases of sexual abuse.

The victim is always questioned

and somehow,

they're the ones to blame.

Lawyers of the defense asked her

whether she's into threesomes

or whether she's into swinging.

No matter how many photos

and videos she has as evidence,

they're still trying

to blame her for it.

The comments that we heard

in the defense,

arguments were archaic

and shows also the height of misogyny

and the utmost contempt for women.

Some defendants

used arguments saying,

"Dominique Pelicot,

the husband gave his consent,"

as if the wife was the property

of her husband.

Many saw the defense arguments

as misogynistic,

but this defendant

takes an opposing view.

I am a very feminist person.

I'm more sensitive to the cause

of women than many feminists

who call themselves feminists.

Dominique has admitted everything

since the beginning.

He also says that all the accused

present in the room knew everything.

They knew she would be drugged

and they knew why they were there.

I can't recall another trial

anywhere else in the world

where a r*pe case

that has so much evidence

and in that weird way, you know,

Gisle Pelicot has the perfect trial

because unlike so many other women,

she has proof of what has happened.

After Gisle's insistence,

the judge rules

that the videos be shared in court.

When the first videos

were shown in the courtroom,

there was a feeling of unease

in the room

because it wasn't easy to watch

with the victim next to you.

I preferred not to watch them all

because some of them

were beyond comprehension.

When you sit in that courtroom

and you see one video after another

of a woman snoring deeply,

loudly echoing in the courtroom.

She was not a human being

in that moment,

and I think that's really shaken

a lot of people

as to how men see women.

There have been some powerful moments

during this trial.

I'm thinking of when Gisle Pelicot

spoke for the first time.

The rest of the courtroom

fell completely silent

as Gisle Pelicot said, she wanted

to address her ex-husband directly.

So many times, I said to myself,

"How lucky I am

to have you at my side."

How could you have betrayed me

to this point?

How could you have brought

these strangers into my bedroom?

I am a woman

who is totally destroyed.

I don't know if my whole life

will be enough to understand.

Their daughter, Caroline, feels

like she's the forgotten person here.

The police found two photos of her

in her underwear lying on a bed

that she doesn't recognize.

So, she's convinced

that she was also drugged and abused.

Dominique tells the court

he took the photos of his daughter

because he was being blackmailed,

but offers no further explanation.

He denies ever drugging

or touching her,

but Caroline is convinced

he is lying.

She gets red. She's frustrated.

She screams at him, you know,

"You're a liar. You'll die alone."

She was hoping, I think,

for some closure in this trial.

But there's lots with her

that's unresolved.

During investigations

police discover

that Dominique's criminal activity

dates back much further.

What's emerged is that Dominique

is potentially connected

to at least two other crimes

from the '90s.

In 1999, an attempted r*pe

of an estate agent in Paris.

It was a DNA match, so he admitted

he was involved in this crime.

In Sophie's case, we have no proof

that it was Dominique Pelicot.

But in these two cases,

there are elements of the MO

that are totally identical.

Two women who work as estate agents

who are young, around 20 years old,

who are showing an apartment,

who are attacked with a knife,

who are assaulted, who are sedated

with ether to make them fall asleep.

These cases may seem connected,

but have no link

from a legal perspective.

Investigations are continuing

on these two cases and others.

Police suspect

Dominique may be linked

to at least five unsolved crimes.

Gisle Pelicot is making history.

She is leaving a legacy

for all of us women.

Today, she is truly a symbol

of the fight against sexual violence.

Locally, but also in France,

Europe and all over the world.

This trial has had a huge impact

in the French society.

Many protests have been taking place

in solidarity with Gisle Pelicot.

I would like to thank all the people

who have supported me

since the beginning of this ordeal.

I was touched by this momentum,

which gives me a responsibility.

All of you give me the strength

to fight this fight to the end.

This trial is a reckoning for France

and the law around consent,

but it's also allowing women to say,

"We're here to be believed."

"Even if it's harassment

on the street,

it's being inappropriately

touched in a club."

"We're saying this is happening."

And Gisle is standing up and saying,

"Listen to us

when we say what's happening."

They're asking for 140 new measures

from the government

to fight against violence

against women.

They're asking

that all victims are believed.

Because they're referring directly

to the Gisle Pelicot case.

Ninety-four percent of r*pe cases

are dropped before they go to trial

so it means

that there are many women in France

that have received no justice

for what happened to her.

We're hoping that this could be

a game changer in the fight

against r*pe culture

and sexual violence in France.

For the local people of Mazan,

this case has been

particularly poignant.

I hope there will be

a before and after this case.

I can see it with the women

that we work with,

it's really given them courage.

Gisle is a formidable woman,

very, very strong and brave.

She's shown us

that we shouldn't feel ashamed

and that we too can reject

this shame, this guilt we feel.

Latika and Marion decide to organize

a march in Mazan

in support of Gisle.

Gisle was so touched by this

that she came to visit

the association the next day.

Meeting Gisle gave me the courage

to reopen my case, to fight

and to tell myself that being

a victim doesn't mean you are weak.

We can hold our heads high.

We can accuse without feeling shame,

that's important.

And that's what she's shown.

Many women are hoping that this case

will lead to law changes in France.

So, it isn't the case that lawyers

need to prove intent to r*pe a woman

and actually it becomes a form of,

you need to assort positive consent.

In December 2024,

after a historic trial,

all the men charged with the r*pe

of Gisle Pelicot were found guilty.

The men have been awarded

varying sentences.

Dominique received the maximum

under French law, 20 years.

I don't think we'll ever forget

the name Gisle Pelicot.

She has become

this iconic figure of strength

and somebody

who has challenged r*pe myths

that are still held in 2024.

This case has the merit of showing

that rapists

are everywhere in our society

and it shies away from what was

a common widespread idea

that a r*pist was some monster

that was alienated from society.

By making this trial public.

Gisle said that she wants shame

to change sides.

But she's also doing this,

so that society changes,

that attitudes change,

so that the law changes too,

so that r*pe is seen differently,

so that people can speak freely

and victims of sexual violence

can identify with her.

And for this to serve as a lesson

to everyone, in France,

but also across the world.

I think of the unrecognized victims

whose stories remain in the shadows.

I want you to know

that we share the same fight.

I would like to express

my deepest gratitude

to all the people who supported me

throughout this ordeal.