Seven defendants on recordings: rape videos shown in Avignon trial

Seven defendants on recordings
Rape videos shown in Avignon trial

October 5, 2024, 1:52 p.m

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For years, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged by her husband and offered to rape her. In the criminal trial, the 72-year-old insists that the videos showing the abuse against her be played in the presence of the public. Now the judge is complying with her request.

At the express request of Gisèle Pelicot, who was offered to be raped by her husband for years, photos and videos of the acts were shown publicly for the first time at the trial in Avignon, southern France. At Friday’s trial, nine videos and a handful of photos of the crimes were shown to spectators and media representatives, and the presentation of the shocking evidence lasted almost an hour.

The spectators in the courtroom and in an additional auditorium noticeably took their breath away when they were shown how Gisèle Pelicot was abused by different men on the marriage bed at home in Mazan. The footage showed the seven of a total of 51 defendants in the trial, whose cases were heard this week.

Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot has confessed to repeatedly drugging his wife with sleeping pills and raping her from 2011 to 2020. In at least 92 cases, strangers who Dominique Pelicot had contacted in internet forums were also involved.

“Shame has to change sides”

Pelicot, now 72 years old, campaigned from the outset to ensure that the trial did not take place behind closed doors, as originally planned. “Shame has to change sides,” she emphasized. For this reason, she also got the judge to reverse the decision on Friday not to publicly show the images of the acts in the trial. The decision was preceded by an almost two-hour discussion between the litigants.

Gisèle Pelicot spent most of the time looking at her cell phone during the presentation of the videos and photos, while her ex-husband in the dock shielded his eyes or looked away. Some of the affected co-defendants looked, others turned their gaze to the floor. The co-defendants then again denied the accusation of rape.

A defendant sees himself as a “victim”

While some of the defendants in the trial argue that they thought it was a sex game between the couple and that the woman was just pretending to be asleep, one of the defendants interviewed this week described himself as a “victim” of Dominique Pelicot and emphasized that to have acted out of fear of him. Another suspected that he had also been given drugs because he couldn’t remember anything. Dominique Pelicot, on the other hand, emphasized several times: “They all knew about it.”

“Even seeing that isn’t enough?” said 25-year-old spectator Elise Pinas, outraged by the defendant’s reactions and left the additional auditorium “in anger.” The young woman rated the fact that the videos were shown as “very useful”. The defendants in the trial face prison sentences of up to 20 years. The verdict is expected in mid-December.