This is a shockingly disturbing case that involves a man in the South of France who pleaded guilty in September 2024 to charges of secretly drugging his wife of 50 years over the course of nearly a decade, filming over seventy men as they had sex with her sedated & unconscious body. As this case hit the media, many were left to wonder, how could someone do such an unimaginable thing to a person who had loved, trusted & spent five decades of their life by their side? Who were these other men & how could there possibly be so many willing to rape an unconscious woman?
Marriage is an institution that has existed for thousands of years & studies indicate that a good marriage can actually improve a person’s health & happiness, while at the same time, reports suggest that marriage is now in decline. As the years have gone by & societal expectations & ideals have changed, women are now earning their own money & choosing to have children without a partner. For those that are still for the institution of marriage, it can be a comfort & a security, but in this case, the husband proved to be a diabolical human being & the details of this case are truly horrifying.
72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot, a mother, grandmother & former logistics manager, had been married to her husband, Dominique Pelicot, for fifty years; the couple have three children & seven grandchildren together. It was always her belief that she had the perfect husband until her world came tumbling down into what she described as nothingness.
Little did Gisele know that in 2010, Dominique was arrested for filming videos under women’s skirts in a supermarket in the Paris region. Because Dominique was simply fined €100 for the offense, his wife was never informed. At the time, Pelicot was ordered to provide a sample of DNA that ended up matching a sample from a drop of blood that was found on the shoe of a victim who had been raped eleven years earlier in 1999 in Villeparisis. The sample was sent over to the prosecutors who were in charge of the inquiry, but by this time, the case was closed & the evidence went ignored. Once again, another fact that Gisele was completely unaware of.
Everything came crashing down ten years later in 2020 when Pelicot was yet again caught filming videos under women’s skirts in a supermarket, this time in southern France. He was once again arrested & unlike in the previous case, a more thorough investigation was carried out. This is as a result of changes made in 2018 when a law in France cracked down on sexual harassment & made taking photos up women’s skirts illegal.
During this incident, a woman who was shopping, was warned by a security guard that a man had been following her. It was September 2020 & Pelicot had hidden a camera inside a bag to take images of several women when he was suddenly confronted by the security guard. The guard seized Pelicot’s phone & the woman filed a complaint with the local police which led to his arrest.
After he was caught & arrested for filming up the skirts of three women, as part of the investigation, police were sent to search Pelicot’s home & electronic devices & it was here that they came across something that shocked them to their cores. Within a folder marked abuse, they found thousands of photos & videos of men engaging in sexual acts with Pelicot’s wife, Gisele, while she appeared to be unconscious, lying on their bed.
For Gisele, her life as she knew it fell apart one afternoon in 2020 when she was summoned to the police station & informed of their findings. During their meeting, she was shown a still image of a man that was not her husband, raping her on her own bed.
Bombshell after bombshell went off for Gisèle as she learned that her husband had been regularly drugging her between July 2011 & October 2020. He had been crushing sleeping pills & anti anxiety medications into his wife’s food & drinks that had been prescribed by her doctor in an act of what is known as chemical submission. Chemical submission is when a person is drugged without their knowledge for criminal purposes.
During the years of assaults that Gisèle was completely unaware of, the men came into contact with Pelicot through an online forum called à son insu, which translates to without her knowledge.
For the next two years, police combed through countless photos & videos in order to identify & charge the suspects involved. Investigators counted about 200 instances of rape, many by her husband & more than 90 by strangers. In total, 72 men took part, 51 of which have been tracked down. The other 21 were not able to be identified from the footage.
Beginning in 2011, the alleged abuses took place in the Pelicot home in the quaint, medieval French village of Mazan, which has a population of 6,000. They had to follow specific orders so that Gisèle wouldn’t wake up during the attacks. They could not talk loudly, they had to remove their clothes in the kitchen, warm their hands before touching her, they could not wear aftershave, cologne or smell of cigarette smoke. Pelicot is said to have cleaned his wife’s body after the attacks.
Most of the accused lived in south-eastern France within a 37 mile/60 km radius of the village of Mazan. Of all the men accused, Gisèle recognizes only one, a man who previously came to their home to discuss cycling with her husband. She occasionally bumped into this man when she was out running errands & they would exchange pleasantries. She never could have imagined that this man would be responsible or capable of raping her.
As of 2024, the men involved range in age from 26 to 74-years-old, 48 of which, including Pelicot, are charged with aggravated rape of Gisèle. One is charged with a lesser charge of sexual assault & another with attempted rape. The accused men vary in career from a nurse, a journalist, farmworkers, a soldier & a local counselor.
In addition to the aggravated rape charge, Pelicot is also being charged with drugging & accused of taking, recording or transmitting sexual images of his daughter, daughter-in-law & former daughter-in-law. Pelicot’s daughter testified & referred to photos of herself asleep that she does not remember being taken & suspects that her father drugged her & possibly abused her as well, an accusation that he denies.
One man in Gisèle’s case, 63-year-old Jean-Pierre, is accused of following the same model as Pelicot & drugged his own wife in order to rape her. Pelicot is also being charged with raping this man’s wife after she had been drugged. Pelicot acted as the man’s mentor; he provided him with the sedatives, explained the method & Pelicot drove to the man’s house to rape his wife on several occasions. He ended up cutting ties with the couple after the man’s wife woke up in the middle of one of the assaults.
Another man, the youngest of the accused, who was 22-years-old at the time, wasn’t even present for the premature birth of his daughter in November 2019, a time when one of his alleged assaults took place.
More than a dozen of the men have pleaded not guilty & claimed that they had been tricked into having sex with Pelicot’s wife. They indicated that they were lured to the home with the proposition of a threesome & according to Pelicot, Gisèle was simply pretending to be asleep because she was shy.
Some indicate that Pelicot presented the situation as a couple’s fantasy so they believed they were simply taking part in an agreed scenario between a husband & wife who had an open marriage. However, one man does admit that he found it strange that Gisèle was snoring & he knew she was unconscious, but he didn’t realize that this meant that she had not consented.
Many of the accused men have no previous criminal records & claim that they did nothing wrong because they believed that what they were doing was consensual since they had permission from Pelicot. Six of the accused have convictions of domestic violence & two have convictions for sexual violence. A total of 23 have a criminal record for offenses that include drunk driving or possession of drugs.
One man in particular, a 43-year-old carpenter, went to the Pelicot home on two occasions, once in October 2019 & again in January 2020. He told the judge that because Pelicot told him that his wife was a consenting partner in a sex game, he didn’t give the matter of her willingness much more consideration. According to this man, he was at the couple’s home after being invited by the husband & feels he is innocent of any charges.
Another man, a 38-year-old unemployed former agricultural laborer, accused of raping Gisèle on New Year’s Eve 2018, also believed that because he was given permission by the woman’s husband, in his mind, she also agreed to it.
A 40-year-old computer expert who holds two college degrees has a similar excuse for his alleged crime in June 2020. He elaborates, I did not go there with the aim of committing a crime. I had absolutely no idea that Mrs. Pelicot was not consenting.
According to these men, they genuinely believed that because the husband was giving them permission to have sex with his wife, then his wife was available for sex & what they were doing was not illegal.
54-year-old Cyrille D, a butcher, is accused of raping Gisèle in her home in September 2019. The man had been placed in the foster system as a teen after he was raised by his abusive, alcoholic father. He admits to raping Gisèle when his partner & the mother of his children, was away on holiday. He indicates that he turned to the chat room to console himself since he was sexually frustrated. Despite the fact that Pelicot was insistent that the arrangement was okay, after he did what he did, he realized that he had not gained Gisèle’s consent as she had been clearly unconscious. He indicates that during his time behind bars, he understood that women do not belong to men. During this particular attack, Gisèle’s lawyer said that the video evidence showed that her life was in danger as she risked not being able to breathe.
44-year-old Lionel R worked at the Pelicot’s local grocery store. He is a married father of three who made contact with Pelicot & also admits to raping Gisèle, but elaborates that he never intended to commit rape. The court heard that Pelicot specifically brought his wife into the supermarket so that Lionel could see if he was attracted to her before agreeing to the arrangement.
Dominique Pelicot managed to fool so many people in his life, including his friends & relatives, all who believed that he had a happy family & a normal, healthy marriage. Because of this, some feel it’s plausible that the men thought that they were dealing with a normal spouse who had an unusual kink.
The issue lies in the fact that these men believed that husbands are allowed to grant access to their wives’ bodies. This begs the question, what does it say about society that men still allow husbands this sort of authority? The fact that over fifty men, all within the same area, believed this to be okay is baffling.
Fourteen of the fifty-one accused admit to raping Gisèle, some have apologized which Gisèle only views as an attempt for them to excuse themselves. Some suspect that Pelicot had even drugged them & a shocking number said they were sexually abused as minors. Two of the accused indicated that they were gay & hoped to sleep with Dominique when they came to the Pelicot home. Not a single of the 51 accused sounded the alarm when they realized that something was amiss within the home, none acknowledging that Gisèle was a victim in need of help. A single anonymous phone call could have ended the abuse long before Gisèle was made aware of what was happening.
Before the bombshell of this information was dropped on Gisèle, she believed that her life with her husband was happy & fulfilling. Over the course of their fifty years of marriage, they raised their children together & she considered him a caring father & a kind man that she trusted. He was well liked by their friends, they shared holidays, birthdays & milestones together over the course of five decades. She trusted her husband implicitly & viewed their sex life as normal.
Pelicot has since confessed to the 1999 sexual assault on an estate agent in the Paris region of Villeparisis. He is also under investigation in connection to the rape & murder of 23-year-old Sophie Narme, also an estate agent, in Paris in 1991. He is denying involvement in this case & sadly, forensic scientists found sperm that could have provided DNA to pinpoint the killer, but the evidence was destroyed by a forensic laboratory shortly after it was obtained. During both cases, the attacker placed an ether soaked cloth over the victims’ mouths in order to render them unconscious.
Many people believe that a predator such as Pelicot, does not wait until retirement to become one. They want investigators to focus on the man’s activities between 1999 & 2011, when he began drugging his wife. French media outlets indicate that investigators are planning to compare Pelicot’s DNA to that found at the scenes of attacks on six other female estate agents acoss France between 1991-2004. During these attacks, five of the victims were sexually assaulted & one was murdered.
In the four years that Gisèle prepared for the trial, she could not wrap her head around how the man, who she considered the perfect man, could do this to her? She acknowledges that during their five decades together, they had their share of ups & downs. She describes a short period of divorce over business reasons, before they went on to get re-married.
For three years, Gisèle admits to having an extramarital affair with a colleague & recalls that when she confessed to her husband, they were standing in the bathroom. She indicated that he had his suspicions & her admission hit him very hard. When questioned if Pelicot possibly did what he did as a form of revenge, Gisèle does not believe this to be the case, something that Pelicot also denies.
Psychiatric experts who have evaluated Pelicot believe that he has paraphilic tendencies. Paraphilic disorders are recurrent, sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviors that are distressing or disabling & that involve inanimate objects, children or non consenting adults or suffering or humiliation of the person or a partner with the potential to cause harm.
They indicate that he is a man who is consumed by fantasies that are similar to necrophilia & he has a complete lack of empathy. Doctor Paul Bensussan testified that Pelicot is aroused by watching a partner having sex with others. Another expert indicated that he was excited about his wife being degraded by men he knew little to nothing about.
It’s also been questioned if Dominique Pelicot suffers from an inferiority complex. One video depicted him condescendingly referring to his wife as bourgeois.
Dominique & Gisèle came from very different backgrounds; he grew up in what was considered a dysfunctional environment. He had been working since age 13 & paid 80% of what he earned to his father whereas Gisèle came from a more privileged & loving home.
Gisèle acknowledges that beyond the loss of her mother, she was raised in a very loving home which was a stark contrast to the home where Pelicot lived with his tyrannical, authoritarian father. He has also indicated that at age 9, he allegedly sufferred sexual assault. When the two met, her family became a refuge for him & his father-in-law got him a job in the real estate business.
Despite the trauma she was dealing with Gisèle waived her legal right to anonymity & insisted that her trial be held open to the public, something that is atypical of how sexual assault cases are handled in France. Gisèle wanted to make a statement that victims such as herself should not feel shame & rather, every bit of shame should be on the sexual attackers. She wants her story to change society in hopes she can help other victims.
In making this decision, Gisèle was aware that the videos that were filmed by her husband would be shown during the trial, something she knew would be difficult but necessary. She remained firm on being the symbol of the fight against sexual violence & told the court, I’ve decided not to be ashamed, I’ve done nothing wrong. It is her goal not to express & spread hate in the process, but make necessary changes in society.
Protests have been held across France to show support for Gisèle as many women have expressed their admiration for her bravery & courage. She feels her decision is not one of courage, but rather determination. Gisèle acknowledges that this is not her battle, but that all rape victims.
Gisèle admits that at age 72, she’s uncertain as to how she’s going to rebuild her life when at the moment, it feels completely destroyed. She went on to say, I’m not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this. Regardless of how the rest of her days are rebuilt, it remains her goal to be an inspiration to other victims who might say, Mrs. Pelicot did it, we can do it too. She realizes that when a person has been violated in such a way, there is shame & it’s a matter of shifting that shame from the victim to the rapist.
Gisèle, who has since divorced her husband, noted that she would have never imagined that her husband was a rapist & now realizes that a rapist isn’t always someone you meet in a dark car park late at night. He can be someone found among family & friends. After learning of her husband’s crimes, she walked out of their shared home with nothing more than two suitcases, a moment she recalls as, all that was left for me of 50 years of life together.
Pelicot has admitted to the charges against him & said, I am a rapist, like the others in this room. The trial is being held in Avignon & is expected to run until December 20, 2024. His admission is clear, it’s his court testimony that will be crucial for the panel of judges to decide the fate of the 50 other men that are in trial alongside him. If found guilty, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence for rape in France unless the victim is tortured or killed.
Pelicot told the judges, One is not born a pervert, one becomes a pervert. He said this as he recounted an occasion when he was raped by a male nurse in the hospital when he was 9-years-old. When he thinks back to his youth, he recalls many shocks & traumas. He went on to admit that his wife never deserved what he did to her, I was crazy about her. She replaced everything. I ruined everything.
Throughout the years of the attacks, Gisèle contracted four sexually transmitted diseases as none of the men wore protection. The presiding judge over the case wanted to understand how the 71-year-old defendant managed to get his wife to unknowingly ingest the drugs for such an extensive period of time without arousing her suspicions. Pelicot indicated that he was the one responsible for the cooking in the household & as he cooked, oftentimes, Gisèle was in the other room. He indicated that sometimes she had her doubts, but for the most part, it had been relatively easy.
He went on to say that once his wife was in a state of deep sleep, he would remove her pajamas & dress her according to everyone’s desires. Pelicot said that the effects of the drugs would last five hours & after his guest left the house, he still had plenty of time to put things back into place. He would wash Gisèle’s body, re-dress her & do laundry. The items of clothing he dressed his wife in during the attacks were hidden in a bag that was stored in the garage.
The judge asked Pelicot how he was able to live with himself & spend a day after an attack next to his wife that he claimed to have loved more than anything, he didn’t elaborate & only said that The days after were hard, she was not in good shape.
Gisèle has no memory of the abuse she was subjected to & indicates that over the years, she began to experience many terrifying, unexplained symptoms. She began to lose her hair, she lost weight, at times she spoke incoherently as a result of the drugs & feared that she was developing a brain tumor or Alzheimer’s disease.
Gisèle recalls that she would have a glass of white wine with her husband while they ate dinner & she never suspected that there was anything strange in her food. When they finished eating, Pelicot would go off & watch a football match on TV. Before he settled in, he would bring his wife her favorite raspberry ice cream as she relaxed in bed. As she ate her ice cream, she reflected, How lucky I am. He’s a love.
Gisèle never felt anything at all, she would only remember waking up with her pajamas on, assuming she quickly fell asleep. Sometimes she felt very groggy & tired in the morning but she would chalk it up to the idea that she had walked a lot the day before.
There is hope within the country of France that with Gisèle’s case, changes will be made in controversial laws governing sexual consent. It wasn’t until a previously high-profile rape trial in 1980 that triggered a change, the crime of rape in France had been narrowly defined by a Napoleon-era law, illicit coitus with a woman who is known not to consent.
It wasn’t until 2021 that France introduced a legal age of sexual consent & it only came after a public outcry about the rape of an 11-year-old schoolgirl by a man who was initially convicted only on the lesser charge of sexual assault. This case has implemented the law that having sex with anyone under the age of fifteen as non-consensual. Unlike other European countries, France does not refer to consent in cases involving older victims.
According to a study by the Institute of Public Policies, only 14% of rape accusations in France lead to formal investigations. The law is written in a way that defines a ‘true rape’ as that from an unknown attacker, use of violence & the victim’s resistance which is only true for a minority of cases.
This case has highlighted the fact that the monster often hides next door, a seemingly typical, unassuming person. Gisèle has thanked those have rallied around her in support, I dedicate this fight to all the people, women & men, throughout the world, who are victims of sexual violence. To all these victims, I want to say to them today, Look around you, you are not alone.
Love shouldn’t hurt; everyone deserves a relationship that is free from domestic abuse. If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, help is available 24/7 at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Call 800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.
References:
- France24: Inferiority complex, revenge? Gisele Pelicot testifies on husband’s possible motives for mass rape
- CNN: Gisele Pelicot, French victim of mass rape, hopes trial will help other women
- Fortune: Mass rape survivor Gisele Pelicot urges victims not to be ashamed – and hopes her case will change society for generations of women
- Time: The horror of the Pelicot trial goes far beyond this case
- Reuters: Gisele Pelicot, French victim of mass rape, hopes trial will help other women
- The Times: Dominique Pelicot rape trial: Husband linked to eight more crimes
- The Guardian: A soldier, a nurse, a lorry driver & dozens more: Who are the men accused over rape & assault of Gisele Pelicot?
- Sky News: French man accused of drugging his wife & letting 50 men rape her admits crimes
- Sky News: Victim of Dominique Pelicot on how her report led to France mass rape trial
- ABC News: Gisele Pelicot recounts ‘scenes of horror’ as French trial is told husband drugged & raped her for a decade
- Le Monde: French mass rape trial: What exactly is ‘chemical submission’?
- Le Monde: Dominique Pelicot’s second tumultuous interrogation at French mass rape trial
- The New York Times: The rape trial in France of 51 men, explained
- CBS News: Gisele Pelicot explains why she wanted her husband’s mass rape trial in France held in full public view
- Merk Manual: Overview of paraphilia & paraphilic disorders
- CBC: What we know about the 51 men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot
- National Domestic Violence Hotline
