France's Gisele Pelicot says 'macho' society must change attitude on rape

Gisele Pelicot, the French woman drugged by her ex-husband so she could be raped and sexually abused by him and dozens of strangers, said on Tuesday that it was time for a "macho" society to change its attitude on rape.

"It's time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivializes rape changes," said Gisele Pelicot in her closing statement at the trial of her ex-husband and dozens of other men on rape charges.

"It's time we changed the way we look at rape," she added.

Since early September her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot has been in the dock in the southern city of Avignon along with 49 other men. Another defendant is still at large.

Gisele Pelicot has become a feminist icon by refusing to be ashamed and demanding the trial be open to the public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Gisele, 71, said the marathon hearings marked a trial of "cowardice" on the part of the men who took part in the rapes organized by her husband.

"I've seen people take the stand who deny rape, and some who admit it," she said.

"I want to say to these men: at what point did Mrs Pelicot give you her consent when you entered the room? At what point do you become aware of this inert body? At what point do you not report it to the police?"

None of her abusers alerted the police.

"I can hear this gentleman saying 'a finger is not rape'," Gisele Pelicot added, in reference to testimony from another defendant.

Investigators have counted around 200 instances of rape, most of them by her husband and more than 90 by strangers.

'Scar will never heal'

Gisele said her former husband "had a lot of fantasies that I couldn't fulfil".

"But why did it come to this? I think what he wanted was Mrs Pelicot and not someone else," she added.

"As I didn't want to go to a swingers' club, he thought he'd found the solution by putting me to sleep."

"I've lost 10 years of my life that I'll never make up for," she added.

"This scar will never heal."

The trial enters its final stages this week. Dominique Pelicot was also set to address the court before the civil parties' deliver their closing arguments.

Prosecutors are then scheduled to give their closing arguments and make their sentencing demands for the defendants.

On Monday, the couple's three children spoke in court of their heartbreak and grief, with the daughter insisting she has been "forgotten" despite being also abused.

Gisele's daughter, who uses the pen name Caroline Darian, believes she was also assaulted by her father.

The case of 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot has sparked horror, protests and a debate about male violence in French society.

Dominique Pelicot has confessed to being a rapist. If convicted, he would emerge from the historic trial with a record as one of France's worst sex offenders.

Of the co-defendants, only 14 have admitted the charges of aggravated rape, for which most of them face up to 20 years imprisonment if convicted.

The 35 others deny having raped Gisele Pelicot and maintain that they thought they were taking part in sex games.

'One for all'

Gisele's life was shattered in 2020 when she discovered that her partner of five decades had for years been secretly administering her large doses of tranquillizers to rape her and invite dozens of strangers to join him in their home in the village of Mazan.

Gisele Pelicot has said that for years she had strange memory lapses and other health problems and thought she might have had Alzheimer's.

Many hope that the trial will help victims of sexual violence to finally be listened to and believed, and lead France to inscribe the notion of consent into the definition of rape in French law.

"One for all," French daily Liberation said on Tuesday, putting a picture of Gisele on its front page and calling the trial "historic."

The verdict is expected to be delivered by December 20 at the latest.